


Flashpoint 2: Advent Solaris

by ImperialDiamond



Series: DCAMU Continuation [1]
Category: DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU), DCU, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: "Post" Apokolips War, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Anthropomorphic, Barry Allen is The Flash, Burns, Character Death, Corruption, Crossover, DCAMU, DamiRae - Freeform, Demons, Feedback Welcome, Flashpoint (DCAMU), Furry, Gen, Gods, Hallucinations, Multi, Nega League, Nega Titans, New 52, Nightmare Fuel, Plot Twists, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Retcon, Robots, Science Fiction, Ships and characters will be added to the tags as they become relevant, Sonic 06, Sonic 2006, Superheroes, Superpowers, Time Travel Fix-It, Torture, Urban Fantasy, Violence, nobody asked for this, the occasional shameless movie reference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:48:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 180,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialDiamond/pseuds/ImperialDiamond
Summary: Taking place "after" Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Barry Allen ("The Flash") wakes up in a freshly created timeline courtesy of his latest flashpoint. However, he finds out that more about this timeline has changed than he initially anticipated. There doesn't appear to be virtually anything recognizes from either of the three timelines he previously inhabited, though at first things appear to be going far more smoothly than ever before for him. That is, until he meets the heroes and villains of this new timeline he's created.What follows is a rabbit hole filled with memories of the timeline which no longer exists, and an effort to save the current timeline from the apocalypse that is set to befall it if nothing is done in time. Barry has no idea how far the rabbit hole he's travelling down goes, but he's not going to let history repeat itself anymore. He's going to fight back, with or without the new heroes of the world at his side.Warning: Apokolips War spoilers....obviously.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West, Big Barda/Scott Free, Damian Wayne/Raven (DCU), Dinah Lance/Oliver Queen
Series: DCAMU Continuation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157321
Comments: 32
Kudos: 34





	1. New Beginning

> _Accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can, and have the wisdom to know the difference._

He did not want to open his eyes.

He quite preferred the darkness of keeping them closed, perhaps for eternity if he must.

Three timelines. One aborted, two destroyed. Both by him; one out of selfishness, the other by truly awful luck. 

He dreaded the thought that his one was going to end up just like the others - doomed to a loop of never ending doomsday; an eternal cycle of repetition with him being forced to remember it all.

Try as he must though, he had to open his eyes eventually. With a deep breath he embraced the light of the fourth timeline. Or at least he attempted to do so, as the moment his eyes were opened they were greeted with a burst of blinding light from the sun. He groaned a bit, though his eyes adjusted within a matter of seconds. Once they did, he was in for quite a surprise.

He had no idea where he was.

The city was not a thing like Central City, Metropolis or even Gotham. In fact, it appeared as though he was in Italy, Venice perhaps. It had the canals with gondola rides going through, it had classic venetian style architecture, though none of the landmarks were correct. There was no Doge’s palace, only two large bell towers and a castle on some island far off the distance. There was also a complicated structure built in the canals directly in front of the courtyard where he was sitting; a stone platform connected to six others, with torch-like pillars in the center; all also connected to what looked like one more massive torch, decorated with metallic railings made to resemble both stylized flames as well as an eagle directing attention to the larger torch in the center. A very ornate and unique landmark, though one Barry had not once seen or heard of in his life.

This was no city he’d ever been to.

_Where am I?_ He thought as he got up to leave in the hopes of finding some way back to a place he was familiar with using his speed, only to find that yet again he lacked his powers of super speed, unable to accomplish more than the average top speed of a handsome, very athletic grown man. Faster than most of the people in the city, but the blonde man was far from superhuman. 

“I probably should have expected that” he said to himself upon the revelation, sighing at this being the second timeline where he has no powers upon entering. His initial plan dashed, he restored to his second plan; asking a local where he was.

It proved to be harder than he expected, as there wasn’t a very high population of people within the town and those that were around didn’t seem to pay him much mind. It took him some time to find someone willing to talk to him, though it wasn’t him who asked the question. Instead, his attention had been grabbed by the sound of a young boy sobbing. 

The boy was at least a pre-teen, with auburn brown hair and a very thin physique. Barry, ever a superhero even with no powers, instinctively went over to this young man to see what the problem was:

“Hey kid, what’s the matter?” he said in a concerned voice, grabbing the child’s attention:

“It’s my dog, Pele” the boy explained, “I was taking him out for a walk and now he’s missing, I don’t know where he’s gone off to!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help find him for you” Barry assured the child, patting him on the shoulder - the boy responded with a hopeful look that helped Barry forget his own dilemma for a moment, “What does Pele look like?”

“He’s a black and white dog, mister” the boy said to describe his dog, “He’s not very big, but he’s not very small either.”  
  
“What breed?”  
  
“I don’t know, I think he’s a mix of a few!”

“Alright, where did you last see him?”

“About right here, sir!” the boy exclaimed, before pointing off towards the courtyard where Barry had just been a few minutes prior, “He ran off in that direction, but then I lost sight of him!”

“Alright, you stay here I’ll go look for him.”

“Thank you, mister!”

With that exchange being done, Barry went off in the direction that the boy had pointed off in. He would have been much faster without his powers, though as it turned out in hindsight he didn’t need them anyway. Venturing around the large mosaic-and-stone courtyard and cafe area he found a small crevice that housed a small bridge that served as a shortcut to a part of the city located behind it. It was but a quick jog away from where the boy was, and on the other side of this small bridge was the dog. Sitting, panting with his tongue out, and wagging its tail.

_Are you kidding me?_ Barry honestly wasn’t sure why the boy evidently didn’t run after his beloved pet, but knew better than to judge a child.

As Barry approached Pele, the dog proved to be friendly - actually rolling over and letting the depowered speedster rub his bully in a moment that made Barry actually chuckle a bit.

“Alright Pele, fun’s over. Time to get you back to your owner.”

The dog parked a bit, apparently understanding Barry. Either way, Barry was then able to pick Barry up in his arms and carry him back over to the boy, which yet again proved to not actually be very long of a walk at all.

Upon returning to the boy, the dog began struggling within Barry’s arms until he let go of Pele and let him run back to his owner - the two embracing with Pele licking up his owner’s face.

“Pele! Your back!” the boy said between giggling as Pele showed his affection for him. It was honestly a scene that made Barry smile, after the horror he’d witnessed in his previous timeline seeing something as bright and wholesome as this small moment was practically therapeutic. _Speaking of that subject…_

“Hey, kid…”

“Huh? Oh, right, thank you so much mister!” the kid responded as Pele calmed down and Barry grabbed his attention, “I really thought Pele was gone forever!”

“It’s no problem, it’s what I do” Barry answered, “But besides that, can you tell me where I am? I have no idea what city this is.”

“Oh, you’re a tourist?”

“I, guess you could say that, actually.”

“Well, this is Soleanna, city of water!” the boy happily exclaimed. 

_Soleanna? Sounds Italian, or at least Latin, but this looks almost like a carbon copy of Venice. Maybe this is just ‘Not Venice’ or something?_

“So, am I in Italy, or what?”

“What’s an Italy?”, the boy cocked his eyebrows, his face showing confusion as though he had never even heard that word before, let alone knew what it meant.

“What country is this city in?”

“Mister you really should learn more about places you travel to, Soleanna _is_ a country _and_ a city!”

“Oh.”

“Haha, you’re kinda funny” the boy chuckled, “You must be from the Federation, those guys always know the least about the world!”

“You mean the United States?”

“No it’s the United Federation, not the United States!” the boy laughed again, “I thought grown-ups were supposed to know these things! There’s no United States! Haha!”

Barry wanted to respond with snark to the kid, though the speedster knew that from the kid’s perspective the boy had a point. Remembering that, Barry decided to at least attempt to play along in order to end this conversation:

“Haha, that’s right, how could I get that mixed up!” he said while forcing his laughter, “I was tryin’ to mess with ya a little there, but you saw right through me!”

“You’re really bad at jokes, mister” the kid bluntly said, “Anyway I better go home now, my mama’s making pasta tonight, plus I really wanna be up to see the festival later, see ya around!”

_That remark was uncalled for, Kid._ Barry pouted at his sense of humor being insulted, but let the kid and his dog walk off back to their home without taking up any more of their time. Besides, _I need to find some kinda newspaper or computer, something that can tell me where the hell I am._

Walking away from the area he was in, Barry searched for any library or newspaper stand - or really anything that had any information about this new timeline at all. Last time he created a flashpoint, the timeline was different but the world was still recognizable. There was still an Italy, and still a United States. Still a world that he could at least accept as his. There was no ‘United Federation’ or ‘Soleanna’ as far as he knew. Even if this city-state was beautifully scenic, he still needed to locate this timeline’s versions of his friends - Iris, the League, the Titans, Constantine, anybody really. He needed _something_ he could recognize.

Luckily for him, finding a library was not difficult. Spending some time walking around the castle town, he eventually had a chance to converse with some of the pedestrians walking along the streets, and one middle-aged man had said to him:

“Library? Yeah, that’s in the New City, just take that tunnel right on over there and you’ll be there.”

“Thank you” Barry actually sighed when that man said that, he felt like he’d been wandering in circles around this place for hours - everything blended in so much that it all seemed like the same place to him. Either way, as the man said, the city was connected to other parts of the country via large tunnels, entered through large, opulent green doors. With there evidently being no vehicles to use in this part of the city, Barry had no choice but to walk through the cave-like tunnel and just hope there was a ‘New City’ area on the other side.

The whole while, all he could do was think:

_Ya know, this would be a lot better if I had my powers. But no. Figures._

His legs hurt like hell by the time was on the other side, but once he was on the other side of that tunnel he saw the coveted ‘New City’ area: a mountain-side slice of a metropolis, complete with high-rises and skyscrapers, with a harbor area on one side, a train station built partially into the mountains, and a warehouse ‘in between’ the two. The roads did in fact have asphalt on them, though Barry was perplexed as to why there was no traffic. At least, not in this part of the city.

He was surprised to see such a drastic shift in appearance just passing through a tunnel, though at the very least the appearance did bring back memories of his home of Central City. At least, a little bit. He didn’t have time to gawk at what he remembered though, he had to focus on acquiring information.

When it hit him that the man he talked to literally had given no details as to where the library was actually located, Barry ended up asking multiple people walking about the streets:

“Oh, just take the next turn on your left.”

“It’s back that way.”

“Go north for like three more buildings.”

“Go east, it’s the second building on the west side.”

_Who talks like that?_

“Take a left, then take a right, and you can’t miss it!”

It was like that for at least seven more people until finally one person told the exhausted Barry words that yet again made him happy:

“Dude” the young man dressed in a suit and tie said, “You’re standing right in front of it.”

“I...I am?”

Barry looked at the library and saw it was honestly not any different from the rest of the buildings in this area of the city, only with the words ‘library’ as a sign on top of the door. Barry was both happy and annoyed, he muttered “Thanks” to the man as he walked in but as he wiped sweat from his brow he also thought almost aloud:

_These guys really don’t know a thing about designing buildings._

Barry was relieved to be in the inside of a building with air conditioning rather than under the merciless heat of the sun walking around asking people questions. He basked in the A.C. for a bit just before getting right down to business. The sections were easy enough to find, with history being the first section he looked up. He was able to find various books that told him the story of this timeline, though absolutely none of it was a damn thing like the world he remembers.

The History of Soleanna was the first book he sat down and read through. The history of Soleanna was actually somewhat fascinating to Barry, though also a tad bit confusing. Evidently, the civilization had actually started within a desert that is also present on the island - with photographs of ancient ruins akin to what he would normally assume were Egyptian or Middle Eastern in nature sporadically present on the pages. The story was told of an ancient people who worshipped the Sun God Solaris, who also evidently had power over Time and Space. Worshipping him so that he did not destroy the world with his flames, the annual tradition of the Festival of the Sun continues to this day.

_They worship a God so he won’t destroy them? Is this Solaris guy the new Darkseid or something?_

The book also was very vague on why the civilization evidently moved from the desert to the coastal and temperate areas of the city, though Barry assumed it was something to do with habitability anyway and did not mind the lack of details on that front.

Getting enough of Soleanna’s information, Barry turned to a book that was more about the general world rather than just the city-state itself. He was hoping he would at least see some familiar names, though was sadly mistaken:

Not in any photograph or map presented in the book was anything he recognized. Not a single, solid, thing. The world’s geography was only vaguely akin to his own, but looked more like a completely different planet. There was no United States, no Themyscira, no Atlantis, no Bialya. The biggest joke to him was that there was a ‘Central City’ in this new timeline, though it was the capital of the United Federation. To Barry, that alone was a massive slap in the face. Beyond that, there was no Metropolis and not even a Gotham though - only some place called ‘Station Square’ that from what Barry could tell filled Metropolis’ role in the world, though there was absolutely no mention of Superman, Lex Luthor or even Kryptonians in general.

Neither was there mention of the Justice League, Wayne Enterprises, Mars or anything else he remembers for that matter. Not even the Green Lantern corps received a mention. The only aliens that were mentioned were present in a book covering the ‘Invasion of the Black Arms’, detailing how one ‘Shadow’ managed to almost single-handedly destroy them and their leader ‘Black Doom’. 

_‘Black Doom’, and I thought ‘Darkseid’ was lazy._

As he kept reading and reading through the history books he could find, there continued to be n no mention of the Justice League or Teen Titans, only figures named ‘Sonic’, ‘Shadow’ and some organization known as ‘G.U.N.’ - standing for Guardian Units of Nations. From what Barry could tell they were the United Federation’s military force rather than anything remotely similar to the Justice league.

He didn’t trust them.

After putting that book onto a table next to his seat, he placed his hands onto his head and leaned forward, all of this being a lot to take in.

_None of this makes any sense._

_At all._

_Like, at all._

He truly could not believe it. This was a timeline where it seemed as though so much of time had been distorted that even the big bang probably happened differently. Yet somehow, he still existed. Somehow, he still remembered where he came from. He was alone in what seemed like an alien world - no Bruce, no Clark, no John, no Hal, no Vic, no Diana, and so far not even Iris. Yet, this world wasn’t supposed to be alien - this planet was still called ‘Earth’. Though this was no earth that he knew.

That world, that timeline, was gone. 

Only he, so far at least, remembered what once was.

With a sigh, Barry stood up and decided to accept it. He had no other choice anyway, it wasn’t like he was the suicidal type. He didn’t know how many of his friends if any at all exist in this new timeline, though at least this timeline is still better off than the one he recently erased.

Walking out of the library and back into the breezes and ‘sweet’ smells of the New City district, his attention was caught by a familiar voice:

“Barry? Barry, there you are!”

Turning around, Barry’s eyes widened:

“Iris?”

Indeed, it was Iris. Standing right there, her red hair still worn in that ponytail - her green eyes still glistening like emeralds in the light. There was no mistaking her for anyone else as she gave Barry a hug - he returned it, though was still pleasantly stunned to see her at all. 

“I can’t believe I’ve found you here, I thought-”

“Well what was I supposed to do?” Iris interrupted, “I said I was just taking a bathroom break, and then I came back and you were gone!”

“Oh” realizing that she had a perfect memory of this timeline, Barry decided to play along. Rubbing the back of his head, he thought of an explanation and said the first one that came to his mind; “Sorry, I dozed off and got a little worried when I saw you weren’t there, thought you went sight-seeing without me...haha.”

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt,” Iris spoke, a slight smirk on her face, though she did appear to genuinely trust him, “So, you been soaking up the literature of this place?”

“Oh, yeah. I was just skimming through some books. Fascinating history, can’t believe there was that alien invasion last year.”

“I told you not to remind me. There’s still people all over Central City that are homeless because of those attacks, but at least Shadow made sure those guys are gone for good.”

“He did? How did he do that?” Barry broke character, his memory of the Apokolips War taking over for a moment. Iris though, didn’t seem entirely amused by it:

“You didn’t watch my coverage of it?” she shook her head, “He used the eclipse cannon on the ARK to destroy Black Doom and his comet completely! I covered it live!”

“Oh, right!” Barry yet again had to rub the back of his neck nervously, “Sorry, I guess I just needed my memory jogged a little.”

“It’s alright, I’ve had those moments before myself.” Iris softly chuckled, “Anyway, you still up for hitting the beach before the festival tonight?”

“The festival?”

“The festival of the sun! They do it every year here and it’s the reason we came here? I’ve seen clips of it online, but this is going to be the first time I get to see it in person! They do it to honor their sun god, Solaris!”

“Oh right, _that_ festival! What time is it gonna start at, again?”

“I think it’ll start at around eleven or midnight.”

“Then yeah” Barry smilled, “We have lots of time. Let’s hit the beach.”

“Just what I thought you’d say~”

With arms wrapped around each other’s waists, Barry and Iris happily departed the ‘bustling’ New City as Iris essentially escorted Barry over to where one goes to enter the vast coastline of Soleanna, known collectively as Wave Ocean. A beautiful yet expansive set of smaller islands and various rock formations well populated with sailboats, boardwalks, and last but not least orcas.

The latter proved rather beautiful for both Barry and Iris, as they sat on the sand and watched from their beach towels as pods of the massive creatures breached the water, jumping about as the sun shined down on them. This was a moment Barry had wished for back in the previous timeline, and it was a moment he never wanted to end. Seeing Iris smile, seeing her so happy and alive, holding her hand and experiencing it all with her, it made everything almost worth it.

Even as she rested her head on his shoulder as they simply enjoyed being on the beach, with the sounds of the waves hitting the shore and the smell of the salt water surrounding them, it was not just a highly pleasant moment of life. It was almost like heaven.

This world may not be anything like the one he remembers, but from what he can see it may just be more worth living in.

However, even as he enjoyed his moment with Iris. There was still the other side of his mind that remembered everyone else. Bruce, Clark, Lois, Diana, Victor, J’hon, Hal, Billy, Constantine, Zatanna, Arthur, Mera. Even Dick, Koriand’r, Damian, Conner, Raven, Gar, Jaime and the rest of the titans. As far as he could tell, only he and Iris seemed to exist in this world. As much as his heart was delighted to be so happily with Iris, it also ached for those whom he had considered his friends - he assumed his nephew Wally might still exist, though he was almost afraid to ask.

However, he couldn’t contain his feelings permanently:

“So, how’s Wallace been doing?”

“Wallace? Who’s Wallace?”

“Oh, nevermind” Barry said in a soft tone, not wanting to bother her with details she wouldn’t even be able to comprehend, “Just an old friend of mine I haven’t seen in a while.”

“Well you never told me about a Wallace before, but you know Rudy and Daniel have _both_ said they want to name their kids Wallace when they have any.”

“Oh really?” that gave Barry a bit of ‘hope’, so to speak.

“Yeah. I think they should at least consider choosing separate names, but hey it’s their kids.”

“Right, haha.” Barry looked back at the shore, and could see that the time of sunset had now arrived, as the great star was just beginning to lower itself beneath the horizon - turning the sky a beautiful mix of orange and red as it did so, with the waters of the ocean reflecting that and turning a beautiful shade of dark purple the further it was away from the light.

Barry thought about bringing up the others, but one last look at Iris who was resting her head on her shoulders while smiling at the view of the setting sun made him know that asking about the Wallaces was enough. Unfortunate as it was, that was all in the past now. He couldn’t change it any further, and he didn’t want to - he just accepted it and turned his attention to what he could change.

He and Iris embraced each other, and shared a single romantic kiss before they turned their heads to watch the sun set.

As much as he wanted this moment to last forever frozen in time, Barry was now more than ready to witness the festival of the sun alongside his beloved. At least they still had a few good more hours to spare.


	2. Festival of the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The festival of the sun occurs, with Barry and Iris expecting a standard Soleannan celebration. However, the celebration is crashed by the new timeline's resident main villain - as well as the resident main hero. In other words, the long awaited meeting of the two most famous speedsters finally occurs. Or at least, a one-sided meeting anyway.

The festival of the sun was a night that Barry would never forget for as long as the timeline continued on. In ways that Barry would never have expected though perhaps should have.

It was about either eleven o’clock at night or full midnight when the festival took place, Barry hadn’t checked his watch in a while. He had honestly forgotten to do with all of the celebrations being underway. Beneath the blackened yet moonlight, star filled sky of the night was livelihood well beyond missing from Soleanna in the day time. Far more people were gathered in castle town for this one occasion than Barry had seen earlier, it was a rather pleasant surprise to see the city so bustling with life. Almost all of the buildings throughout the area were decorated in small, red lights to represent the sun, and the darkened waters of the canals were illuminated by the various fireworks going off throughout the town.

Barry and Iris stood together, both of them enjoying the celebration with the rest of the tourists and locals alike. Considering the way the last timeline ended for Barry, this was a breath of fresh air. Very, fresh air. He may not have his powers, and Iris may not be aware that she’s living in yet another Flashpoint, but none of that mattered now.

The world was at peace, this is what everyone would have wanted.

Soon, the crowd cheered louder as the large pleasure boat carrying the sovereign of Soleanna, Princess Elise, arrived on the scene, heading towards the large stone torch set up in the center of the city. The boat carried not only her and several cloaked priestesses, but also a troupe of ballet dancers that danced in sync with each other, as if controlled by the celebration itself.

The main focus however was on Elise as her boat docked and let her off on the platform, letting her step off of it and towards a small, elderly and hunchbacked priest waiting for her. Though she was only about fifteen or sixteen, she still looked stunning for this event: her short auburn red hair waved softly in the wind and the jewelry along with her short, opulent white dress jingled as she moved - including the glowing blue emerald she wore around her neck. Her light blue eyes soon met with the flames of a torch handed to her by one of the priestesses, though that was when Barry could notice something about her.

It appeared as though she had suddenly stopped. Frozen as she looked upon the flames she was holding. It was almost as though some form of stress disorder had just been triggered for her, as she simply stood there as if frozen in time - only blankly gazing at the flame being held in her hand.

Seeing this, Barry turned to Iris and asked:

“Is something up with the Princess? Looks like she’s blacked out.”

“Huh?”, it was then that Iris noticed this as well, and she too was quickly curious about it, “You’re right.”

“That ever happened before?”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen these live before. Maybe it does, fire could trigger some bad memories for her, she did lose both of her parents.”

“Oh. Well, I can relate.”

Iris silently held Barry’s hand, a small show of affection and sympathy that always went a long way. Still, there was something about the way Elise had been frozen in place that simply rubbed Barry off in the wrong way, that there was perhaps more to this new timeline than the heavenly introduction he’d been getting so far. Still, for now he was willing to believe it was just some form of PTSD. For now.

Either way, it ended when one of the priestesses managed to snap Elise out of it, allowing the ceremony to resume as though this small moment had never happened. After some ceremonial bowing, Elise finally spoke the traditional words spoken at this ceremony, with things quieting down so that she could properly be heard:

“We give thanks for the blessed flames, may we always continue to have peace. God of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light!” 

With those words she promptly lit the torch and as the cheering and fireworks let again erupted all across the castle town, all of the railings of the platform surrounding her became theatrically alight with flames - culminating in the stylized eagle railings leading up to the larger torch itself. All while she smiled and waved to the crowd that cheered her and Soleanna itself as a state on. Even Barry found himself clapping alongside Iris as they watched this together.

Finally Barry could feel himself moving on from the forgotten pasts, and accepting the reality he was now a part of.

Though, he really couldn’t have picked a worse time to do that.

Barry was perhaps the first to notice, looking up at the sky and seeing fireworks that didn’t quite look right - they looked more like bright lights heading directly towards everyone rather than up in the air. Within moments he was instinctively shielding Iris as these ‘fireworks’ revealed themselves to be misles which swiftly struck the platform Elise was standing on as well as various buildings around the castle town area, causing eruptions of fire and smoke to arise from all that they impacted. In an instant the scene was turned into one of screaming and fleeing pedestrians as from the smoke heading into the sky a massive, flying battleship could be seen with its lights barreling down at those below, before part of it opened to allow an armada of white, stainless steel robots with guns for hands to be deployed to the streets below.

Barry shielded Iris from both the explosions and the resulting debris, though he did not flee. The superhero still in him wouldn’t allow that, even if he was powerless. The robots did not pay attention to him however, instead they merely surrounded Elise and aimed their weapons at her as she and the priestesses around her cowered.

Before long, the creator of these robots revealed himself as a large, rounded hovercraft vehicle also descended from the airship; carrying the creator inside it’s cockpit. Once he had descended close enough to Elise, he stood up from his bow and revealed himself; a bald headed man, wearing black tinted glasses. His brown mustache was bushy like that of a true mad scientist, and his red suit completed that look perfectly. The way he looked in the light of the fire and smoke caused by his misles gave him a menacing appearance as his eyes fixated solely on the vulnerable Elise:

“A pleasure to meet you at last, Princess of Soleanna” he spoke nonchalantly as he introduced himself to her, “I am Dr. Eggman, I’ve come here to obtain the secrets of the Flames of Disaster from you and to take the miracle gems that are the key to it’s secret - the Chaos Emeralds!”

As Barry watched and listened to what was going on, he noticed Elise gasp and clutch at the glowing blue gem she wore around her neck. Barry wanted to do something, but without having any powers there wasn’t much he could feasibly accomplish.

“Now princess” Eggman said with a smirk as he gestured for Elise to enter his aircraft, “This way, please.”

Elise, still clutching at the emerald around her neck, only backed away in fear from the man with no intention of complying to his orders.

Barry was just about to find some sort of way to get involved, just about to jump into action even if it was the dumbest thing he could do - when something stopped him. Something stopped everyone.

As if out of nowhere, the wind around the robots started twirling around - a fast moving blur of blue kicking up a tornado of dust around the platform where Elise and the robots stood. Barry recognized this type of speed anywhere, it was a fellow speedster. From this blue tornado, the figure stopped as if just to appear from a higher platform and reveal himself - that was when Barry felt like he had to check his eyes:

“Hi” the blue figure said in a cocky tone, “That’s a pretty snazzy performance there.”

_What in the….am I, am I on crack?_

The cocky figure was a blue speedster alright, but a literal talking animal. It had large ‘quil’s along it’s back and a short tail, and was covered in blue fur - though wearing white gloves and red-white shoes. His smirk gave off attitude that almost reminded Barry of Conner, though Barry still couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

_Maybe I need to get a drug test done later..._

He didn’t have much time to contemplate his sobriety however, as within moments after that snarky remark from the creature, Eggman’s robots retaliated: firing their machine guns at the four foot tall creature with no holding back. However, dealing with this was virtually elementary for any true speedster. As the platform soon exploded from the combination of missiles and gunfire, the blue creature simply jumped in the air and even did some gymnastics like flips as though this were routine business for him, before using his speedster tallents to make short work of the robots, destroying most of them within seconds without even being hit by a single bullet.

One by one the robots rapidly fell as they were struck by the blue speedster, who looked like an extremely fast moving blue ball of wind as he made scrap metal out of them. Eggman could just look on in shock as his creations were defeated without much of a second thought. Barry was actually impressed.

One robot was left unable to move, though the blue creature tapped it with his foot and made it fall into the canal waters before rushing to the Princess, finally introducing himself to her:

“I’m Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!” and it was with those words that the hedgehog picked up the princess, who was still speechless with all that was going on around her, and began to run off with her. Eggman of course, was having none of this:

“Not that irritating hedgehog again!” he yelled, “ATTACK!”

On his orders, the remaining robots on the scene started firing their ballistic missiles at Sonic as he and the princess sped on through the castle town at a speed not too unlike Barry’s own, with a trail of explosions and property damage following after them - as well as Eggman and his armada of robots.

Barry wanted to follow after them to help Sonic and the princess, but he remembered very quickly that he had to make sure Iris was safe. Luckily, she was still not far away, she was shielding herself beneath a table as the violence sped on away from her and Barry, who rushed to her side as quickly he could.

“Iris, are you alright?”

“Don’t worry Barry, I’m fine” she said as he helped her back to her feet, “I just hope the princess will be!”

“I hope so too, maybe I should do something.”

“Barry, that’s very noble and sweet of you, but I don’t want my husband to get blown up by killer robots because he wanted to play superhero.”

Barry wanted to laugh at that, Iris had no idea the irony in what she had said. He wanted to tell her, but he didn’t want to confuse her. Besides, explaining everything would take up far too much time, at least in this specific moment. Instead, he opted to at least hold off on it for now and instead only said:

“Let’s get you back to the hotel before things get worse around here.”

Iris nodded, and though Barry looked back at where Sonic and Elise ran off chased by robots with a desire to be involved, Iris did have a point. There was not much Barry Allen could do against ballistic missiles.

Arriving at the hotel room that the two had checked in before heading to the beach, Barry and Iris hardly took the time to take in their Italian styled room before talk of what just happened became their entire discussion:

“What in the hell happened back there?” Barry started, still processing what he just saw. Iris, having been used to her share of madness in this timeline, expressed concern for the princess though also a silver lining of hope:

“Evidently, Eggman’s taking a vacation in Soleanna too.”

“Ok, and how do you know Eggman? Because I could’ve sworn he wasn’t your type.”

“Oh god no!” Iris was mortified at the mere thought alone, “Don’t even joke about that! I only know him because honestly, this is usually what he does.”

“So he’s basically the standard villain guy of this world, huh?”

“Well, yeah, but, shouldn’t you already know that?”

It was then, and with a deep breathe that Barry realized he may as well just explain things to Iris right here and now, and he began to do so the moment she was sitting down on the couch in the room, while she looked at him puzzled yet attentive:

“Yes” he said, “I _should_ know that, but I don’t. It’s because, for me at least, this entire timeline didn’t exist a day ago. Iris, normally I’m a super awesome speedster known as The Flash, saving the world like that Sonic guy does. I used my speed to create new timelines three times now, one time to try and save my mother, and then two other times to prevent the end of the world. I promised you that I would never do it again, but I had no choice the third time, there was nothing else that could be done. This is the first timeline I’ve made in which almost literally everything is different after creating the flashpoint though. I don’t understand how things are not even remotely similar to the previous timeline, but there’s nothing I can do about it, and I really hope you’re not thinking I’m totally crazy right now because after seeing Sonic I’m still doubting my sanity myself.”

Iris had paid attention to every single word Barry had said, nodding her head as he explained this to her - though remaining silent as she processed all of it in her mind. Barry got nervous as he waited for her answer however, with the awkward silence managing to get to him rather easily:

_I’m guessing this is gonna be the part where she calls me a nutcase and I sleep on the couch._

However, instead of that happening:

“Well, Barry” she took a bit of a breather as she spoke on, “What you just said should make absolutely no sense to me at all, but yet, I actually think I believe you.”

“Wait, you do?”

“I mean, this world has been through a sentient water god that flooded all of Station Square, a space colony that almost crashed into earth, regular attacks from a psychotic roboticist and even an alien invasion that almost turned all life on earth into a food source so I suppose believing what you just said isn’t too much to ask.”

“You never cease to be awesome” Barry smiled with relief, Iris smiled herself and said:

“Besides, I knew something was off with the way you’ve been acting.”

“Heh, yeah, well it’d be easier if this timeline wasn’t so radically different from the other ones I’ve been in.”

“How different are we talking?”

“To you it would probably feel like a completely different universe.”

“How would time travel cause so many changes though? I thought everything would just cascade from whatever event you changed?”

“I thought that too, but I was told once that the way time works is more ‘wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey’ and that the mere act of me creating a flashpoint creates ripples throughout time, changing things even before the event I traveled back in time to fix. I have no idea how far back those ripples went this time, I must have time traveled so hard even the big bang was different.”

“And this Wallace guy you mentioned, was he-”

“It was more of a they, there were two of them. Both of them were our nephews.”

“Oh.”

There was a moment of silence for both Barry and Iris at that moment, though Iris was still more of a mental processing silence while Barry was a bit more of a grieving one, still remembering what happened to both Wallaces in the previous timelines he’s been in. He had been told that the second one died early on in the attack, though the first one was missing - presumed deceased. He was happy that in this timeline, both of them would get a new complete start on life though; provided their parents still conceived them in the coming months.

_I’m sorry, Kids. If I could go back to that timeline, I’d convince Clark that his plan is demented in a heartbeat. Best I could do here, is be one of the first things you guys see when you enter this world._

While Barry was lost in memories from the previous timeline, it was Iris who snapped him back to reality:

“So Barry” she spoke slowly as she still processed it all in her mind, “What are you going to do? Do you want to go back to the previous timeline, or you’re staying here?”

“I’m staying here. I don’t have a choice. As far as I know so far, there’s no way to restore any of the previous timelines I’ve been in, not even the first one. Besides, this one’s pretty casual so far, besides the whole talking animal thing.”

“I take it Sonic didn’t exist in your previous timeline?”

“Not a single thing like him existed. I mean, we had aliens too, but, none of them looked like _that_.”

Iris couldn’t help but laugh, Barry sitting down next to her while she cupped his hand again.

“I know it’s easy for me to say because as far as I know this is just the real world we all live in, but you’ll get used to Sonic, don’t worry.”

“So, like, is he an alien or what?”

“As far as I know, he’s native to this planet.”

“I’m gonna have a hard time believing that.”

“Well believe what you want to believe, honey” Iris chuckled as she kissed him on the cheek, “And, you said something about you being ‘The Flash’?”

“It’s a long story that’ll take a while to explain, but basically I was a speedster - like Sonic. Pretty much the fastest thing in the world. But unfortunately, I evidently don’t have my powers anymore, not for right now anyway. This happened the first time I made a flashpoint though.”

“I see, well, I take back what I said about the ‘playing superhero’ thing earlier” Iris mused, “I didn’t know you actually _were_ one.”

“It’s no prob, apparently in this timeline, I never was one.”

“Well, assuming you never told me about any secret identities, as far as I’m aware no, you weren’t.”

“Right” Barry nodded. Another moment silence promptly filled the room, though this one was short-lived as Iris put an end to it:

“You want to help Sonic and see if Princess Elise is okay? Or do you want to go back to Central City and let him take care of Eggman?”

“If you know me, you probably already know what the answer is.”

“Well” Iris fixed the collar of Barry’s shirt while looking him in the eyes, “Just be careful out there, Barry. I don’t want you coming back to me in a bag.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll come back in one piece.”

As Barry and Iris shared one last kiss before Barry began trying to come up with a plan of action as to how he would find someone to restore his powers as well as how he could possibly help Sonic in his latest fight with Eggman. Either way, there was no doubt in his mind that he would accomplish these goals - it was only a matter of time.

Unbeknownst to him at first, his decision to remain in Soleanna to help in the good fight against the mad roboticist was actually a rather good one for all involved:

While Barry was fleeing the scene with Iris, the chase between Sonic with Elise in his arms and the deployed squadrons of Eggman’s robots did not just stop. A trail of explosions following Sonic raged on throughout the Soleanna Castle Town leaving a trail of damaged buildings and walkways in their wake, only stopping once the courtyard-and-cafe area had been reached. Sonic only stopped because a small squad of the machines had suddenly arrived in front of him and from there managed to encircle him.

Putting the princess down, Sonic said to her in ever the confident tone of voice:

“Don’t worry, this’ll just take a second.”

Elise, still scared out of her mind and processing all that was going on, nodded to the smirking hedgehog. Sonic nodded back, and proceeded to curl himself back into an excessively fast ball - slamming into one of the robots just before it began shooting at him. As it was destroyed, the others started firing their weapons at the ‘blue blur’ racing around them, though only managed to accomplish either destroying themselves or missing every single shot they attempted as Sonic’s blue wind slithered around them like a fast moving viper before he began slamming himself hard into each of them, making sure they were promptly destroyed.

_Eggman._ Sonic chuckled in his thoughts. _For an I.Q. of 300 he still can’t make an army that keeps up with me!_

The next trio of robots deployed to attack Sonic didn’t fare much better: they didn’t even get to make landfall. They chased after Sonic as he rushed towards a decently far away building, using his momentum to race along one of it’s walls. Once he was on the ledge of the roof the robots fired their missiles at him and destroyed decent chunks of the structure, though Sonic himself jumped off and like a boomerang took all three of them out like a homing missile of pure speed, slamming one into the other before ricocheting off and onto the remaining one, sending into the ground to its destruction. 

Finishing off the battle by standing before the flaming remains of the defeated machines complete with a smirk, Sonic remarked:

“Some imperial army you’ve got, Eggman!” with that out of his system, he redirected his attention back to the princess, “Alright, Princess, let’s get you to safety!”

However, Sonic’s eyes widened once he saw what had happened. Eggman, using his large ‘egg mobile’ vehicle, had snuck behind Elise and used two massive mechanical ‘arms’ to grab her while Sonic had left her in the open. The princess let out an alarmed scream as she was lifted into the air, a captive of the mad scientist.

“No! Princess!” Sonic shouted and easily caught up with the princess via his speed, trying to jump at Eggman with his momentum, though Eggman laughed once Sonic came to the realization that he had ascended high enough so that not even Sonic’s jumping could reach neither himself nor Elise.

“Ohohohoho!” Eggman’s iconic laugh could still be heard from the ground where Sonic scowled at him from, “It’s no use, you blue rat! Now if you don’t excuse us, me and Elise have a date aboard the Egg Carrier, so long!” 

As the egg mobile promptly flew away towards the airborne battleship however above the city illuminated red by the fire and smoke beneath it, Sonic out of impulsion grabbed a piece of building debris and chucked it at him - it managed to actually knock out one of the vehicle’s headlights and even got lodged into said light, much to Eggman’s annoyance:

“If I get a ticket for that, you’ll be the one paying!”

Eggman’s moment of being distracted by Sonic’s vandalism did not last long though, as soon his attention turned to his captive; she had managed to get her arm free from the vehicle’s grasp and before Eggman could even finish his uttering of a ‘Huh?’ she grabbed the emerald around her neck and exclaimed:

“Sonic!” she called out, “Take this!”

Tossing the emerald towards Sonic as the vehicle was just about to dock inside of the Egg Carrier, Sonic rushed at his top speed and caught the emerald in mid-air. Gazing upon it, the hedgehog immediately recognized it for what it was:

“One of the Chaos Emeralds! Don’t worry Elise, I’ll rescue you soon enough!”

With the hangar doors of the Egg Carrier closing as she and her captor were entering the ship, Elise could only silently nod, Sonic’s assurance managing to lift some of her fear though not all of it.

“Robots!” Eggman yelled out with the last of his moments being audible to Sonic, “Seize that emerald at once!”

With Eggman and Elise now completely inside of the Egg Carrier that swiftly began flying off into the distance that the night sky allowed it, one final squadron of robots was deployed from it’s deck with full intent of engaging in battle with Sonic. This squadron included red colored variations however, which had homing missile launching weapons as opposed to the one like the white-painted ones which only ever went in one direction.

Sonic failed to be very impressed.

_Ooh, red instead of white. I’m so scared, Egg-Head._

As the robots yet again fired their machine guns and missiles alike at the blue animal speedster, they yet again failed to make a single hit on the hero as his speed allowed him to nigh-effortlessly dodge every single stream of bullets and every single missile launched at him.

Once the robots landed in an attempt to gain a better ability to aim at the rodent, they were quite effectively doomed.

With a smirk, Sonic made short work of them.

Two of the white robots, Gunners, hovered above him and attempted to fire their turret streams at him, only for him to jump over their bullets as if they were but a generic obstacle, latching onto a street pole and twirling upwards around it, jumping off once it was destroyed by missiles - onto one of the hovering machines. The tornado created by Sonic’s twirling also managed to kick up enough debris that when sent flying destroyed at least three other Gunners with their

Smirking and waving at the other robot, he got it to fire a missile at it’s own comrade, reducing the latter to pieces before Sonic finished the remaining one off by a direct hit, sending it’s remains into the canals below.

_Gonna have to try harder than that, lame-o’s!_

The remaining robots did not let up their attack; the red ones, Stingers, fired their homing missiles at him from the rooftops above, though Sonic easily evaded the missiles and raced up to the roofs, sliding into the robots feet and sending the entire line of them flying off to their destruction with the sheer momentum that he had built up - they tried to fire one last barrage at him, though with their demises all of their shots only flew off into random buildings or exploded off in the distance without their systems guiding them.

With all of the Gunners and Stingers deployed to the battle destroyed and a large portion of Castle Town reduced to a flaming mess, Sonic remained on the rooftop and looked out at the sky. His smirk disappeared as the seriousness of his job as hero of this world sank in, he could still see the Egg Carrier flying off into the sky - ever increasingly out of his reach.

“Don’t worry Elise” Sonic said into the air around him, “I’ll get you out of there soon.”

All in all, the new day had only just begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: At last, the iconic meeting has occurred. Or at least, partially. Even though this fic was not conceived as a serious idea I'm actually having a lot of fun with this being my comeback to fic writing.


	3. From the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The following morning and day after the festival of the sun, Barry is trying to join the good fight against Eggman and help save Elise - however, he does not get taken seriously by the Soleanna Police due to his powerless status - Forensic Scientist or not. He also finally interacts with the blue blur himself, though Sonic does not want to potentially endanger a powerless civilian either, resulting in Barry getting left in Sonic's dust. This is when a mysterious figure who suspiciously knows about both previous timelines Barry's been in - as well as the future of this timeline - appears, and Barry finds himself desperate enough to consider trusting....

In the hours following the festival of the sun, Soleanna remained in shambles - reeling from the arrival of this timeline’s biggest villain, Dr. Eggman. The castle town area had entire sections of itself barricaded off by the Soleanna royal guard due to the remaining damage that needed to be cleaned up and repaired from the previous night’s attack. The New City area was left unscathed due to not being involved in the attack, but it and all of its residents were essentially locked off from castle town due to the tunnel between the two being closed off. Even tourists who were clambering to get back to their homes out of a desire to avoid what they likely knew was coming in the near future ended up being stopped by either entire areas of the country being shut down, resulting in massive lines lasting for entire blocks extending out from the train station and bumper-to-bumper build ups along the highway, or at least so said the news when it came to the latter.

For Barry, this did not help at all with his ambition of helping Sonic in the good fight against Eggman. In fact, it literally achieved quite the opposite.

Well after Barry spent a few good hours navigating the poorly designed, conforming New City district until he located the tunnel door again - all while lamenting no longer having his powers - he was introduced by not only the fact that the large ornate green door was closed but also guardian by a small troop of green-armored royal guardsman. These guardsmen, from what he could tell, were Soleanna’s sole police force.

He would soon learn that they actually were more than capable of competing with Gotham City’s police force in their sheer levels of corruption and incompetence.

It also should be noted here that quite literally, it appeared as though there were no women present within the ranks of the royal guard, as not once did Barry see a person wearing their green uniforms that even resembled the feminine form. It wasn’t until he was stopped from entering castle town that reasons besides the obvious became considerations as to why no woman would want to join this organization:

“I’m sorry sir, nobody is allowed into castle town. No exceptions”, one of the three policemen sternly said to Barry, putting out a hand to stop him from walking any further. Being a hero, Barry respected the law, though he didn’t exactly appreciate it when they got in the way of ‘the job’.

“I’ve got important business to deal with over there, I’ll be right back.”

“Whatever business you’re going to do, I’m sure it can wait. We have severe building and street repair, as well as an investigation into the kidnapping of Princess Elise.”

“Well” Barry quickly thought of something to say, hoping it would work, “I just so happen to be a forensic scientist! Best in the business, actually! So if you let me through that door and tunnel right there I can help you with that investigation!”

“You’re not hearing me, sir” the policeman scowled, “The investigation is not about who kidnapped her, the investigation is about where her kidnapper went!”

“Well can you tell me where?”

“The giant battleship was last spotted heading towards Wave Ocean, and we believe towards the Dusty Desert part of the island after that. However, both areas are blocked off from public - that means you - entrance for the time being.”

“So you guys are blocking off the area where your monarch’s been brought to as a captive, instead of going in to rescue her?”

“Hey” the Policeman, clearly irritated with such sass, proceeded to ‘bark’ out “I don’t tell you how to do your ‘detective’ job, you don’t tell us how to do ours! Besides, rescue operations are G.U.N. and the blue wind’s forte!”

_ Well I hate these guys already. _

“You guys do know that a forensic scientist is different from a detective, right?”

“Does the difference matter?” the guard responded, “You guys both do practically the same thing, investigate stuff! All you do is work with DNA, and all a detective does is work with clues! Same difference!”

_ I want to slap this guy so hard right now, but I’d be arrested. _

“The point is, I’m technically a cop just like you and your friends” Barry glared at the man, “From Central City, granted, but as you just said -  _ same difference _ .”

The guardsman once again scowled at Barry for his remark, with his arms crossed as well. It was evident that he did not take kindly to such ‘disrespect’, though also evident there wasn’t much he could or felt like doing about it. Eventually the other man grunted and spoke to Barry in a somewhat defeated yet also still very disrespectful tone of voice:

“Alright, you can proceed to the castle town. On one condition.”

“What condition?”

“If you can guess who the captain of the guard is, we’ll let you through.”

The smirk on the guardsman’s face, as well as the snickering from the others, betrayed just how ‘seriously’ these men actually took their jobs. Barry likely did notice those looks, but there wasn’t much he could do about it - other than give a look of both lack of surprise as well as complete boredom with this entire vacation.

_ Next time Iris and I talk about vacation spots, I’m being clear with her about never going back here again. _

Barry rolled his eyes. If he had his powers he would just run along the water to the other side of the island, completely ignoring the ‘bull’ of these incompetent buffoons. However, while the Flash could do that in seconds, Barry Allen wasn’t precisely capable of it. He would have to improvise in order to get anything done here.

“Let me take an educated guess here, are you the captain?” he said, unamused, pointing directly at the guard who presented the idea to him. For some reason, all of them found this entire thing incredibly hilarious. After recovering from bursting into laughter:

“Guess again!”

“Any of the guys behind you?”

Unfortunately for Barry, they all responded accordingly:

“No!”

“Nope!”

“Not me!”

_ Oh. My. God. _

Barry now understood why Batman never worked with the police much outside of commissioner Gordon. He completely understood Bruce’s distrust now. As a fellow cop, at least technically, he was beyond ashamed of these so-called men of the force. However, being powerless he had little choice but to go along with their ridiculous game which he knew damn well was for the most part, purely for their amusement. He hoped dearly that if he did find the captain, that there would be discipline for these guys - but something told him this was routine behaviour for Soleanna’s police.

For at least a full hour and a half, Barry yet again found himself wandering the streets of Soleanna’s New City district - this time looking for members of it’s royal guard police force in order to ask where the ‘captain’ was. He tended to receive one of the follow responses from those he did manage to talk with:

“The captain? I think that guy’s over there!”

“You mean that guy?”

“Oh yeah, I’m the Captain! Captain of being awesome!”

“I believe the captain has door guarding duty at the moment. At least, I think he does.”

“The captain? Not me!”

“Not me!”

“That is not me.”

“That’s not me.”

“Have you tried looking over there?”

By the end of it all, Barry’s eye was twitching and his face locked in complete, total frustration. He found it incredibly hard to believe that such people were qualified for a position as important as defending the city, the country, the monarchy and most important of all the civilians. In his own thoughts:

_ These people aren’t qualified to protect a slice of pizza! _

Returning to the guards that he had first run to while also being absolutely tired, he glared at them as if he wanted to punch them - which he did - while they were still finding excessive humor in his misery. The guard who made him go on the search for the captain was the first to break from laughter just to ask him in a mocking tone:

“Do you have any clue who the captain is yet, forensic scientist?”

“No” Barry said, scowling at the man with incredibly intense anger - though said anger was ignored by the so-called ‘police’, who only mocked him with one more sentence:

“Well, maybe you should try taking DNA samples! Isn’t that what you’re people are good at?”

The bursts of laughter that succeeded that ‘joke’ did not help alleviate Barry’s anger. Quite the contrary actually.

_ How the hell did these idiots get their jobs? _

Thankfully for Barry, the laughter did not last long. Not long after it began in fact, did the door behind the guards open, revealing yet again the tunnel connecting the New City to the Castle Town district. Sighing of relief as the confused guards walked off to the side, Barry was ready to see what he could do about the ongoing situation of Elise’s kidnapping. That is, until some unexpected burst of wind - or speed, really - flew right past him and knocked him straight to the ground.

Recovering himself quickly, Barry could see that this burst of speed was none other than Sonic - who had come speeding out of Castle Town and only broke from his running seemingly to take in the environment of the New City district.

Barry could see Sonic was not alone, however. Since the memories of this timeline hadn’t begun to kick in yet, he did not recognize the figure who was following after the blur however. A yellow furred fox, with shining blue eyes, red-white shoes, white gloves and most uniquely of all two tails - that he could evidently use to fly somehow as Barry saw him clearly using them to lift himself just slightly off the ground to keep up with Sonic himself.

Barry took only a few seconds to process this newly introduced person before remembering with a speedster he had to make his introductions quick:

“Sonic? Sonic!” he exclaimed, before trying to head over to the blue, four foot tall Hedgehog and the even less tall fox. Luckily for him, he did in fact gain Sonic’s attention:

“What’s up?” the Hedgehog greeted, rather casually all things considered.

_ I’m talking to a four foot tall, talking, thing that is supposedly a Hedgehog. This is real. I am not on drugs. I am not hallucinating. This’ll all be normal to me in the near future. _

“I’m Barry Allen” Barry decided it was best to be upfront with Sonic, whom he was still having trouble believing was not a drug hallucination, “I’m a forensic scientist from Central City, and I know this may be sudden and out of the blue, but I want to help you with saving Princess Elise.”

There was a moment of silence between all three parties involved in the conversation, though this was broken by Sonic himself:

“Well Barry, I’m Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!” Sonic’s words were complete with a signature thumbs up, before he turned to the fox standing beside him, “And this here is Tails, my best bud!”

“Hi!” Tails casually waved, Barry returned the gesture, though in a nervous manner considering he still found it hard to believe any of this was really happening.

“And as for you helping me save Elise” Sonic remarked, “I appreciate the gesture but unless you got some powers, you’ll probably just get lost in my dust!”

Barry wanted to say something, though knew damn well that unless he regains his powers, the hedgehog has a point. A very accurate point.

“That, actually is a fair point, to be honest.”

“Heh, don’t feel bad about it though. Not your fault you’re not the fastest thing alive!”

_ Oh, you’re gonna eat those words when I get my powers back. _

Barry held back the explanation of who he was. The payback for that line would come. Just not now.

“Fair, fair enough” Barry held in his urges quite well, “But, before you go, can you at least tell me if you’ve had any luck yet?”

“Well, I kinda did actually” Sonic revealed, explaining the events Barry had unfortunately missed out on, “Me and Tails rescued her out in the desert, even fought a giant dog robot! Got her out of the desert just fine, but then some crazy dude attacked me out of nowhere! Said I destroyed his world, luckily Amy was there to help hold him off but Eggman kidnapped Elise again. Now I gotta go to the warehouse district to meet with Knuckles, he says he has information as to where Eggman took Elise off to!”

_ I’m gonna take a wild guess and assume Knuckles and Amy are more talking animals I’d normally write off as Darkseid or Zoom having injected me with crack or bath salts or something. _

“Do you know where the warehouse district is, Barry?” Tails asked, “We’ve never been here before, and honestly this city can be pretty hard to navigate.”

“You’re telling me, Tails” Sonic snarked, “Just to get through the door I had to guess who the captain of the guard was!”

“You too?” Barry was absolutely stunned, “They did that to me like just a few minutes ago! I don’t know what kind of police force they have around here!”

“Tell me about it!”

“But, why didn’t you just run around them, like, on the water or something? Wouldn’t you be fast enough?”

“Oh” Sonic rubbed the back of his quills, suddenly becoming visibly nervous as he explained why said event didn’t happen, “Long story, but me and water don’t precisely get along.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Yeah.”

“Ahem, guys?” Tails gained back both of their attention, “The warehouses?”

“Right, sorry” Barry replied before turning his eye contact back to Sonic, “From what I remember from my own hours wandering around this place, all you gotta do is head that way” he pointed directly to what was the north, “No turns, and-”

With a single burst of wind followed by the sound of two tails swishing around to keep up, Barry knew the speedster had already dashed off. Looking in the direction he pointed off to, he could only see the blue blur of Sonic’s dashing speed for only a few seconds before it dissipated. He then let out a sigh, wishing he could help with his own speed. Instead he could only walk in the direction he pointed to, though he figured by the time he arrived at the warehouses Sonic, Tails and apparently ‘Knuckles’ would all be long gone and moving on in their adventure without him.

_ It’s bad enough this timeline doesn’t have any of the faces or names I remember aside from Iris. _

_ But this is just rubbing salt on the wound. _

Barry would have kept walking through the streets of the New City district, had he not been distracted by a noise coming from a lone alleyway, shrouded in the darkness of the buildings towering into the sky above. The noise was like a loud, metallic clang, loud enough to gain his attention - though in a city district with no automobiles that wasn’t hard. Barry assumed it had been a garbage lid, or something metallic in nature, hitting one of the building walls in the alley. Though, all he could see was darkness.

Pitch, black, darkness.

Swallowing a bit due to an eerie, cold feeling running down his spine, Barry tried to turn away and resume walking. That was however, when a voice spoke to him. From the darkness of the alley.

“Such a pity, isn’t it?”

“Huh?”

Turning to the voice to see who was talking to him, even stepping closer - to the edge of the darkness though not a single step closer, all Barry could see now were the eyes of some person or creature standing before him. Eyes emerging from the shadow - bright, emerald green, and reptilian in nature.

“Such a pity to remember a past that no longer exists” the figure to whom the eyes belonged to spoke, “And to be a misfit in the present that you created. Is it not, Flash?”

“How do you know about that? And how do you know my identity?”

“Oh, I know many things, Mr. Allen.”

“Who. Are. You?”

“I’m someone who can help you accomplish precisely what you want, and more.”

“Yeah, right. Like I’m going to trust some creepy guy in an alley who says _ that _ .” turning away, Barry was yet again going to walk away, though the figure proved quite persistent.

“Wouldn’t it be delightful if you could go back to your previous timeline,  _ with _ the knowledge you have now?”

Hearing those words. Hearing that idea. Seeing the imagery in his mind. It got him to at least turn back to the pair of eyes in the alley, with a confused yet inquisitive face. He didn’t fully believe such a thing was capable, but figured a being who knows of his previous timelines at all was at least worth listening to. However, giving it thought and remembering what he knows about his flashpoints, he was quick to attempt a debunking of the idea:

“That’s, that’s impossible.” he said, “The mere act of time travelling causes ripples that affect everything around it. If you, or I, tried to go back to that timeline, it wouldn’t work. It would be a completely different timeline no matter what.”

“That is true” the figure admitted, only to follow up bluntly, “If you time travel as sloppily as _ you  _ do.”

“Sloppily?”

“It is true that time is not entirely linear.” the figure explained, “Though even the most unruly fan blade or flat surface can be straightened out with a firm enough hand. Time is much like a plate of food. Your method of traversing the stream of time is to smash the entirety of the plate into your face, when it is much cleaner to instead use precision, devouring one piece at a time using the proper utensil.”

“What, what exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying” the figure then allowed the darkness from around itself to reveal its full form. It did not step closer or anything of the sort, rather the shadows seemed to actually recede from the being on their own accord, perhaps on the commands of the figure itself. The whole scene made an even colder chill run down Barry’s spine. 

Then came the creature’s appearance. It resembled a hedgehog, of the Sonic variety, though it had two quills which were curved. It was also mostly a deep black in coloration, with pale blue stripes on the quills, arms and legs - as well as a puff of white fur on the chest. Pale metallic rings around it’s gloves, and more complicated shoes that seemed to be of the advanced technology variety.

Most pressing of all however, was the fact that upon this creature’s pale skinned muzzle, was no mouth. Barry wanted to bring it up, but he felt it unwise to do so.

As if knowing what Barry was going to ask next, the being introduced itself:

“Allow me to introduce myself, Flash. I am Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark.”

“Mephiles…”

_ I really wish Constantine were here right now so he could tell me if this guy is like Raven or like Trigon. _

“What” Barry nervously said, trying to keep himself from shaking too much, “What do you want with me?”

“Nothing, at the moment” Mephiles spoke, without a mouth his intentions were impossible for Barry to read, “There is quite literally nothing Barry Allen could potentially offer me, though is quite a lot that  _ I _ could offer  _ you _ .”

“Like, what?”

“For one, I could give you the chance you want. A happier ending. I could give you a chance to go back to your own timeline, to warn your friends of the mistake they are about to make, to save your nephew and his friends from their cruel fates. All without the sloppy changes you brought up not too long ago.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“I assure you, I am not.”

Mephiles then held out a hand in front of Barry, and within his hand came a sphere of dark indigo energy, surrounded by what appeared to be blackened electricity. Barry flinched at first, though soon peered into this ball of dark energy - within moments, he gasped. He was actually looking at the main room of the Watchtower, the headquarters of the Justice League. Bruce, Clark and Diana were informing him and the rest of the League about the plan to assault Apokolips, while also briefing the Teen Titans about it remotely as well. The scene in the sphere looked like it was directly from Barry’s own eyes as well - he remembers everything. Clark, Bruce and Diana’s positioning, Clark slamming his fist down to show how serious he was about the attack, Constantine’s skepticism about it. Everything was there. 

In a moment of desperation, Barry snatched at the energy ball - though Mephiles pulled his hand back just as he did so, with the ball of memories disappearing with him. Barry was now on the ground of the alleyway, peering up at Mephiles from beneath - all he had were Mephiles’ green eyes to gauge his intentions with. Still, Barry was too shocked to say anything other than:

“How did you do that?”

“You’re not the only one who can travel through time” Mephiles explained, “Using speed to do the job is far too sloppy. I use far more precise methods.”

“And, you can put me back into that timeline?”

“Complete with your memory and all, yes. It will be just like you came into it from a portal. Seamless, precise. As though a God made it happen.”

_ Wally...Wallace...Iris...Conner...Billy....Barbara...Hal...Zatanna....Everyone.... _

“Then do it” Barry’s tone changed to one of pure determination as he stood up, attempting to tower over Mephiles - though the mysterious being seemed to not be intimidated, “Do it now.”

“Patience” Mephiles told him, “There is plenty of time for you to return, the moment is not going anywhere, and thanks to your prior adjustments to time travel neither are your memories.”

Closing his eyes, Barry took a deep breath. All he could muster the will to say was:

“I can’t help you do much of anything without my powers.”

“Oh” Mephiles nonchalantly remarked, “I am quite aware. However, I can not help you to restore them here. It is best we retire to a domain of mine where such a feat is more easily done.”

With that having been said, Mephiles gestured to what was at first merely the other end of the alleyway - a dead end of brick and mortar. However, within seconds a far larger sphere of dark energy appeared - soon turning into what was recognizable to Barry as a portal, more often referred to by him as a ‘boom tube’. Mephiles gestured for him to walk inside of it, though as soon as Barry did he was pelted by second thoughts:

At first, his reasoning was simple. A chance to save both of his nephews. A chance to save Superboy, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Batgirl, Zatanna and all the other heroes that those horrible monsters slaughtered. A chance to restore the world to the state he remembered. 

But then, he thought about it longer.

Just before entering the portal, he remembered. This timeline was, to him, brand new. In a few hours, if not sooner, he might begin to gain his memories of it, and everything of it will be normal.Sonic, Tails, possibly even Mephiles. It will all be normal to him, and he will vividly remember all that he missed out on. 

_ Absence of evidence doesn’t always mean evidence of absence. _

Clark, Bruce, Hal, even the Titans. They all could very well exist in this timeline for all he knew. Just not relevant enough to appear in books. The only ones he knew did not exist yet were Wally and Wallace, who simply haven’t been born yet. Perhaps Clark is even light years away on a surviving krypton. Who would he be to bring them back to their previous selves, thrusting them back into a war with that monstrous dictator. A war in which, as he witnessed himself, did not end well for many of them.

With further thought, his answer was clear.

“No.”

He stopped in his tracks, virtually one step away from actually walking into the portal. He turned to Mephiles almost defiantly, explaining to the mysterious being:

“I created one timeline out of my own selfishness. I don’t know if versions of my friends exist here or not, but who am I to ruin any of their lives by dragging them back into that stupid war? I don’t care what you’re offering me, I’d rather become the Flash on my own and let whatever versions of my friends who are here live their lives in peace.”

As Barry yet again stormed off, Mephiles could only softly laugh, before speaking to Barry just as he was one step out of the alleyway.

“I thought you might say that, Mr. Allen. Have you forgotten how your many ‘flashpoint’ timelines have ended?”

_ Oh No… _

“Oh yes” Mephiles remarked, “Let’s see, the first one you created had two warring factions decimate both each other and the entire planet, killing millions in the process. The second one you created ended up conquered and utterly decimated by a certain warlord from across the galaxy, if I’m not mistaken. Either way, both timelines ended in complete and utter disaster - and there’s not much guarantee that wouldn’t have happened even in your original timeline at some point either. So what precisely makes you think that it wouldn’t happen this time?”

Barry closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, even clenching his fists before responding to the demon:

“Because...there is no Trigon. There is no Darkseid. The only alien invaders here were single handedly destroyed by one person already. This timeline seems pretty safe to me.”

“Safe? Is that so?”

“From what I can see, yes.”

“Well then, I implore you to take a closer look.”

With Mephiles gesturing once again back at the portal he had created, Barry walked a few steps closer and peered his eyes closer into its light. Soon, a grizzly sight materialized into it. A city. One not too different from Metropolis or Gotham, or even Soleanna. Completely destroyed. It’s surely once prosperous skyscrapers and high-rises are either damaged, destroyed, or even leaning. Water replaced with lava, entire tornadoes of fire running amuck through the ruins of what was surely once a land teeming with life and activity - though now only death and destruction.

There was no sign of life.

Only destroyed cars. Destroyed buildings. Massive canyons of what were once highways and streets, filled with lava and fire. Demonic beings made of molten rock and magma roamed the streets as well as the skies - ensuring any survivors would dare not venture too far outside. 

Barry looked upon this sight with horror. His jaw dropped. His legs, his body backing away from it. All he could muster up the courage to say was spoken very weakly, his entire body shaking as he let it out of his mouth:

“Please, don’t tell me…”

“Yes” Mephiles was blunt about the truth, “This is the future of this timeline, if you and I do nothing to prevent this from occurring. Just like all of the others.”

Barry was completely and utterly silent for what felt like an eternity, even if it was only a few short moments.

Just when he had thought this timeline was finally going to be one in which there was just peace and happiness.

He learned that he was wrong.

Still shaking, he turned to Mephiles, and all he asked was but one simple question:   
  
“What can we do to prevent this?”

“Follow me.”

It was only two words, but with those two words Mephiles stepped into the portal to the ‘future’ and disappeared into it - the vision of the ruined city’s skyline disappearing back into the void of energy as he did so. 

Barry however, hesitated. In his mind, countless thoughts about what he was doing and who he was putting his trust into raced through his mind - though a few thoughts and internal debates stood out amongst all of the others.

_ He’s the only being that might be able to help me stop Darkseid without so much horror and death. _

_ He’s clearly a demon, how do I know he’s not just lying to me about everything? _

_ Even if I decide to stay here, this timeline might be doomed too if I don’t do something about it. Assuming what I saw was what he said he was, and after him showing me my last timeline, should I even doubt him at all? _

_ Is this a gamble I want to risk taking? _

_ I suppose yes, yes it is. _

And so, Barry took his chances and walked after Mephiles into the unknown. Disappearing into the void of the time portal with it vanishing just seconds after he did so - leaving the entire scene looking as though nothing had happened at all, besides a small cool breeze through the alley that displaced a few newspapers that had long since been thrown to the ground.

Barry had little idea of the part he was playing in the grand scheme of things, or who was putting all of the pieces of this puzzle together.

All he knew was that he wanted to do the right thing.


	4. 'Truth' & Restoration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter gets Graphic.
> 
> Barry walks with Mephiles through "Crisis City", witnessing first hand the fate destined for what he thought up until now was a peaceful timeline. He is also told who was blamed for the destruction of this world, and is informed of a 'different' way to restore his powers.

_ It can’t be… _

_ Please tell me this isn’t happening to me again… _

Standing on the edge of a cliff, Barry fell to his knees. Eyes widened in shock. Lips quivering. Everything he was seeing, was exactly why he didn’t want to open his eyes when he first arrived. This was the very thing he was afraid of.

The future.

All around him, now life sized, was what remained of a long since destroyed city. Entire streets caved in like massive canyons, alited by the fiery magma from the center of the planet, rising up to serve as massive rivers through the landscape. The sky was a mix of blood red and charcoal black, reflecting the lava and joined by the suffocating smoke rising to take the place of clouds. Skyscrapers, High Rises, Houses, everything of the sort was all left in ruins. Some buildings were flat out destroyed, others slanting, others with massive holes within them, others just now finally collapsing into dust or falling over for good.

There was no sign of life that Barry could see that wasn’t some type of flying or land dwelling demon made of molten rock. None of them seemed to pay him or Mephiles any mind, though they clearly relished in setting ablaze anything they could.

As he gazed upon this future, all Barry could think was how unfair it all was. 

_ What did I do to deserve this? _ He thought,  _ I just wanted to save my mother’s life! I just wanted to save the world! _

Mephiles, standing behind Barry, seemed to know precisely what he was thinking with the words he said to him next:

“Amazing how unfair and unforgiving time seems to be, is it not? Just when you believe you’re living in paradise, it all comes tumbling down. Such is life, so they say.”

“Why?” Barry asked, “Why does this have to happen?”

“There is no real reason why any of this happens” Mephiles explained, standing next to Barry now, “Time itself has no sentient mind capable of any reasoning. It’s all just a series of rather unfortunate events. A game of russian roulette, as your previous timelines’ people would put it.”

Barry’s eyes scanned across the landscape one more time before turning back over to Mephiles. Still recovering from the revelation of yet another doomed timeline, all Barry could bring himself to say was:

“What is it you said about fixing this?”

As if expecting this, Mephiles responded casually - as though he knew far more than Barry had counted on:

“There is only one way to prevent this from happening. You will have to destroy the person responsible for causing this future. And before you say it, no, it is not yourself.”

“Then who is it?”

“Allow me to show you” Mephiles then began to walk away from Barry, looking back only to gesture for him to follow. Barry, having no one else to turn to and nowhere else to go, complied to the gesture - following the entity through what remained of a once bustling city.

Along the way to wherever Mephiles was taking the depowered hero, was an extended look at the carnage that was set to destroy this timeline. 

Barry’s spine shivered with all that he saw. Boarded up buildings. Busted windows. Empty, rusted and long out of use cars. Entire blocks of street aflame with no water to put any of it out. Most horrifyingly of all, he could make out charred human, animal and even ‘hybrid’ corpses alike among the rubble - just barely visible due to how their blackened remains blended with the piles of ash and debris.

While in the previous timeline he was spared the sight of what Darkseid did to earth, when he did finally see what was left it was not much different from this. 

With only the ambience of the dead city and it’s demon destroyers chiming along with his and Mephiles’ footsteps, there was nothing much to distract Barry’s mind from beginning to envision the bodies of his fallen comrades of the previous timeline with every body that he found. 

Several bodies he saw were hanging from the balconies of rooftops, being torn apart and eaten like roasted meat by a flock of those large, flaming bat-like demons that dominated the airs of this horrible world. Immediately, Barry's eyes began to water as he remembered the fates of Hal Jordan, Barbara Gordon, Zatanna, and even Shazam at the hands of the abominations that the sadistic beast of a so-called ‘new god’ had named ‘Paradooms’. When he looked at those demons, he saw in this mind the Paradooms. When he looked at the corpses, they became his friends. He became mortified.

Another body he saw had it’s head twisted, neck completely destroyed due to being forced to turn almost completely in the opposite direction. In addition to being charred black by the flames and ashes surrounding itself and its environment. Barry couldn’t help but think of Conner, the young Superboy. He had hardly spent more than a few years experiencing the world before his time was cut short but one of those monstrosities, his neck snapped as though he was nothing. There was not even time to mourn him. 

_ I’m so sorry.... _

The various other bodies around reminded him of various others as they were littered throughout the streets. Jaime Reyes, Donna Troy, Roy Harper, Karen Beecher, Garfield Logan. All of them did not have specific injuries, though in Barry’s mind as he saw the corpses of this timeline’s dead he could only become more horrified as his brain forced the images of their corpses lying about in their place. All of them heroes, none of them deserving of their fates.

_ Please, forgive me.... _

That’s when he saw things which made him stop. Two corpses, barely protruding out from the rubble of the various debris. In reality, they were too charred for any identity to be discerned. In Barry’s mind however, they became his cherished nephews - the two Kid Flashes. The two who followed in his footsteps, who were set to carry his legacy. They were, both dead. From Wallace’s mouth was just a bit of blood, and Wally’s face was looking directly at his uncle with a face of shock.

Upon seeing them, Barry lost all focus on following Mephiles and ran to the two of them - now on the verge of crying.

_ No, no no no… _

Going to his nephews’ sides, Barry scooped their corpses into his arms and embraced them tightly. Not wanting to ever let them go, he closed his eyes and let his sobs be released from the bottom of his heart. They were not just his sidekicks or proteges. They were his family. He was supposed to protect them. Yet here they were, both lying dead. As hard and as tightly as he held them, they did not spring to life. They did not utter a single word. They remained motionless, silent. Cold. Gone.

Placing their bodies gently to the ground of the city’s ruined streets, Barry could only continue sobbing inconsolably as he placed his hands to his eyes. 

_ We knew the risks.... _

_ That doesn’t make the pain go away… _

Soon, Barry could feel a hand on his shoulder. Letting reality turn to what it was, and the bodies return to being anonymous corpses in a sea of fire and despair, Barry looked up to see Mephiles looking directly at him once more.

“I know it hurts” the being spoke, Barry now looking back at the bodies to see the reality of what he was holding, Mephiles continuing on, “Being cursed with the memories of such a nightmare. However, let it be your motivation. With it and my assistance, you just may be able to prevent such a fate from happening to your dearest loved ones again. As you can see, you’re still quite in danger of that happening as we speak.”

Barry closed his eyes, letting his hands leave from his face and instead clenched them into a fist. He took deep breaths, letting his sadness leave from his body as he soaked in the reality of what Mephiles was saying.

There was a large part of him that still did no want to trust this being, though based on Mephiles’ far more controlled version of time travel and his knowledge of what Barry thought was permanently erased from the pages of time, he figured that if anyone was going to help accomplish anything it would be him.

He just hoped he had his faith in the right place.

Barry turned to Mephiles and gave a silent nod, his face attempting to be without emotion - though he still mourned for all of those lost on the inside.

Mephiles returned the silent nod, and with only a few seconds of looking back at the two disfigured corpses, Barry got up and resumed the long, silent walk. This time, kept his eyes square on the street, making sure they never strayed far away from directly ahead of him, directly onto his feet, or directly on Mephiles.

_ Darkseid might be long gone. _

_ But the wounds he’s inflicted are still fresh. _

Though it took hours of traversing the ruined, hellish landscape of what was once a vibrant and healthy world, eventually it was clear to both Mephiles and Barry that their destination had been reached. While Barry’s legs had begun to ache due to the long trek through both ash-filled streets and near-volcanic soil, Mephiles seemed perfectly fine. It was also apparent that with all of the dark fire dominating the sky outside, there was no way of knowing for sure what time of day it was or how much time their walk had actually taken.

Not that Barry cared. He wanted to make sure this nightmare never happened.

He was still waiting for the reveal as to how that could be done.

When Barry did begin paying attention more to his surroundings, he saw that he was no longer outside where even the rain seemed to be particles of fire or volcanic rock falling down upon his head - instead he was inside of some aged, abandoned building. He and Mephiles’ footsteps both became metallic clangs due to the floor being nothing but a metallic surface. Doors were all effectively broken, and when they weren’t fully collapsed or leaning off their hinges they creaked very noticeably whenever moved even slightly - if they moved at all. 

Brown, crusted rust was present on virtually everything - and often joined by exuberant amounts of dust. Even the floors had enough mold and grime on them to leave any reflection beyond proper comprehension. 

The lights, there were hardly any. Barry could now hardly see Mephiles at all as they traversed the hallway of this mysterious facility - there was just barely enough light to tell where he was. He now truly had to be sure to keep an eye on the being in order to have any direction at all.

_ What is this place? _

_ What was this place? _

Barry did not have to think about the past of this strange facility long though, for soon Mephiles walked into a room with actual light emitting from it - and Barry followed in. The light was not from an actual light fixture but rather from a large computer monitor that despite all of the odds still seemed to be functioning perfectly. It gave the room a blue-green tint to it, but at the very least Barry could see both himself and Mephiles far more clearly than within the dark hallways.

Mephiles did not waste any time with talking, instead he went directly to the keyboard beneath the monitor and began inputting various characters into the machine. Barry watched, though he remained silent he had a massive plethora of questions about what was going on. At the very least, Mephiles did explain:

“Here are my records of the event that caused all of this to happen. The day of disaster.”

Barry’s attention was pulled towards the monitors as various information popped up onto it. Articles. Headlines. Video clips. Images. The works. 

The first image that Barry noticed was a photograph of the Egg Carrier, the battleship that ‘Dr. Eggman’ owns. The next image was accompanied by an article, and seemed to show a massive ball of flame in the center of Soleanna, with all of Castle Town being set ablaze. All of it said the same thing - the flames destroyed the world. The flames of disaster. The flames of a being known only as Iblis.

“Iblis” Barry muttered as he analyzed all of the articles. All of the images. As he repeated that name in his head, he knew what word meant. He had learned long ago what it stood for in Arabic, and Damian would say it a few times himself. He knew well enough that if a beast was nicknamed that, said beast was not good news.

_ Iblis….the flames of disaster… _

“So, Iblis, destroyed the world?”

“Technically speaking, yes” Mephiles explained, “But he did not destroy it alone. Someone released him, unleashing him to take part in the destruction of this world.”

“And who would that person be?”

“The Iblis Trigger is what they call him” with a bit more typing on Mephiles’ part, a single, large image was brought onto the screen - this time the figure was clear and in color. “But most people knew him, as Shadow the Hedgehog.”

When Barry looked upon the photograph of Shadow, his eyes widened. He looked exactly like Mephiles. He was a hedgehog, about the same height as Sonic, and had curled quills with stripes on them - as well as his arms and legs. The cuffs of his gloves, the advanced shoes, all of it was the same. The only difference was in the fact that Shadow had a mouth, had normal eyes of a red coloration, and his stripes were also red instead of the pale blue sported by the entity that Barry was standing in the same room with. Of course, the similarity between the two still had to be addressed:

“He looks, almost exactly like you.”

“Yes” Mephiles coldly remarked, “He does.”

“I’m taking it that this is going in the direction of me having to defeat Shadow?”

“You’re taking it correctly, yes.”

“Well, what can you tell me about him before I go off to do that?”

“Shadow the Hedgehog” Mephiles said as he turned to the monitor, “The Ultimate Lifeform. Created on the Space Colony ARK approximately 250 years from this current point in time, 50 years from the present we recently left. The full story behind his creation remains hidden in both classified and destroyed government documents, but it is certain that G.U.N. funded and supervised the project during the entirety of it - and that the late alien warlord Black Doom also had a level of involvement at some stage.”

“I see…”

_ I had a bad feeling about G.U.N. from the moment I read about them. _

“In addition” Mephiles quickly stated, “His creator, Professor Gerald Robotnik, was in death the mastermind behind a plot to crash the Space Colony ARK into planet earth - a plot which Shadow himself supported. It should come to no surprise that when the day of disaster occurred, those who survived were quick to turn their blame onto Shadow himself.”

“So, if I take out Shadow, I stop this future from happening?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.”

“Alright, so, where is he?”

Mephiles laughed at Barry’s brash remark, turning to him while still finding humor in his statement. His immediate response was a very blunt:

“You’re not going to take on Shadow in your current state. He would make mincemeat out of you in seconds, if what he accomplished with the Black Comet is any indication.”

“Fair enough” Barry admitted, with a slight nod, “I’ll need to get my powers back, but it doesn’t seem like there’s any rain or lightning going on in this world, how are we going to recreate the experiment?”

“Oh, I have my ways.”

Barry soon learned to at least partially regret agreeing to Mephiles’ method of getting his powers back - though it wasn’t as though there was much in the way of other options. 

There he was, strapped down to a cold, metallic table. Held onto it only by leather straps. Due to the room being poorly lit - only illuminated by dimmed red lights - he was unable to see much of his surroundings, only able to make out the vague shapes of various machinery and test tubes around him. He could not even see where his so-called ‘helper’ was. Though hearing his voice was enough to reassure Barry that he was in fact in the room:

“Remember. This is necessary.”

“This, this isn’t how my experiment went.”

“I know.” Mephiles remarked, “Though it would take far too long to locate a thunderstorm that would help you.”

“But, don’t you have hyper advanced time travel powers?”

Despite Barry telling the truth, he received no response. As he looked around to try and see where Mephiles was in the room, all he could see was a purple gemstone floating in the air - it’s color being seen by him due to it glowing brightly as it was released into the air, presumably by Mephiles himself. Barry focused on it, and was able to see it was similar to the shape of the emerald the princess had prior to her kidnapping. At least, he made that out moments before it began to electrocute him.

From the moment the gem’s energy surges began to strike his body just as the lightning strikes that typically give him his powers, Barry couldn’t help but scream and writhe in pain and agony. His reflexes and instincts fought to break from the restraints as his clothes, hair and flesh were being seared by the continuous blasts of pure chaos emerald energy. It was a pain far worse and agonizing than a mere lightning strike.

Mephiles, for his part, only watched. The being sporting no mouth, his level of enjoyment could not be read. Though he did absolutely nothing to soothe Barry’s pain.

Barry could not even form cohesive thoughts during this grueling process. All he could think about it was how much it  _ hurt _ . Whatever energy was coming from this ‘emerald’, it was not normal. It was not anything he had studied or read about. It was far too painful, burning away at everything it touched on his body as though it were acid. And he was completely, utterly defenseless. 

Barry’s body was absolutely destroyed. There seemed to be almost nothing left of his skin not long into the ‘experiment’. It all looked like bleeding, inflamed muscles and fibers. In some spots, even the bones appeared to be visible. What skin did remain, was scorched by what looked like the most extreme case of chemical burns imaginable. His hair was virtually destroyed, only small particles of it remained. 

Even so, the ‘treatment’ continued. Mephiles remained silent during the entire ordeal, and did not seem to even consider pausing it, despite Barry’s loud and agonizing screams likely echoing out well into the hallway. 

There was nobody there to help him, however.

Only Mephiles.

He who had organized this.

All Barry could do is continue scream, whimper and groan in pain as the emerald continued to pelt his unprotected body with it’s pure energy surges. It was amazing that he was able to move at all still, though the mere act of doing so caused him only further pain at this stage.

He could feel his own blood forming a puddle underneath his back, pouring like a stream down to the floor beneath him. It stung every time his flesh touched it. Like the wrath of a powerful hornet, though the emerald’s burns were still far worse.

Though granted, the latter weren’t stopping.

With the table becoming increasingly like a frying pan, with him as the main course being cooked upon it, he was sure of it.

This was the end.

His gruesome, horrific ending.

Or at least,for any normal mortal being it would be. Not for the Flash.

One final, massive surge of chaos energy flowed through the room and completely destroyed it in a fiery explosion. The test tubes and beakers. The table, and seemingly Barry himself were all destroyed in an instant by the blast. All except for Mephiles himself. He remained unaffected, and as the smoke cleared the emerald itself lowered into his hand. The room was now pitch black, completely caked in darkness save for Mephiles’ glowing green eyes and the purple emerald that had seemingly roasted Barry alive.

Without saying a single word, Mephiles walked out from the room and into the more moderately lit hallway, only stopping the moment he left the room. Turning back to face the entrance to the room, he saw the outcome of his ‘experiment’.

Barry.

Still, shockingly, alive.

As well as healing.

His skin was still badly burned at this stage, though the bulk of his flesh had grown back - and was doing so rather rapidly. He lacked his civilian clothing of course, those having been long burned to nothing, though at the very least his blonde hair was growing back steadily. From the way he was looking, it would be within the hour if not sooner that his body would be completely restored to normal.

Breathing heavily and still getting himself reorientated with the world, Barry turned to Mephiles the moment he spotted him in the dim lights of the hallway.

“What. Was. That.” he said between deep breathes. A large part of him was still infuriated at what he had just gone through, even it was under the guise of restoring his powers.

“Pure chaos energy” Mephiles explained, holding the purple chaos emerald in his hand, “Generated by the Chaos Emerald. It has similar properties to your so-called ‘speedforce’, among other various energy sources from your previous timeline. Very few could survive the pure, chaotic blasts of it that you just took. Let alone have their powers restored.”

_ Chaos Emeralds….those things that Eggman wants… _

_ They’re definitely worth studying more, but I need to stay focused...I need to find and have a ‘chat’ with that ‘ultimate lifeform’ character… _

“Anyway” Barry said as he held his head with one hand as his flesh, skin and hair continued healing, “First, I’ll need to make myself a new suit. Then, I suppose you’ll have to take me to where Shadow is.”

“Luckily, there is little need for complications with the latter of which you speak.”

“What do you mean?”

“He happens to be here as we speak.”


	5. Crisis City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Flash traverses through "Crisis City", and ultimately the name proves to be rather appropriate as the similarities to the previous timeline became far too strong for him to handle it for very long.
> 
> If only he could go back...

For most people, making a superhero suit instead of immediately going after the supposed destroyer of the would be seen as rather strange. However, with his speed restored to its former glory the Flash was capable of putting together a new suit for himself in a matter of seconds. Though he did not gain his powers through the use of lightning as he originally did, he still kept his classic lightning bolt symbol just because frankly it wouldn’t feel like him without it. Similarly, he also kept the golden lightning bolt ‘ears’ and the overall red coloration. There were some minor changes to his previous suit due to the limitation of suitable materials he could find, but he found just enough to create something suitable. He found the nearest shattered pieces of glass and tried to look at what little reflection he could find.

His skin, body and hair had by this point healed to near perfect condition - and he was feeling stronger and more pumped than ever. It was almost unnatural how much energy he felt, honestly. He couldn’t tell any difference in his speed though, but the sparks that came from him did appear to be purple in coloration rather than the typical white color of lightning. Thankfully the blur he created whenever he zipped around the place remained red.

As did his body. Everything from his muscles to his firm behind was in perfect, working order. Whatever he couldn’t see in his ‘reflection’, he could feel or see with his own two eyes. Even though his face now was finally properly hidden beneath his crimson red mask.

_ Alright, lookin’ good. _

_ Feelin’ good. _

_ Now, time to go see about that Shadow character... _

“Alright Mephiles, I’m ready to go find that Shadow dude now! Where’s he at?”

There was no answer.

In fact, Mephiles wasn’t even in the room. Nor was he seemingly in the facility anymore. All that accompanied the Flash was an empty, darkened building. And occasionally, the sound of rats scurrying and screeching, though all purely hidden by the cold darkness that was the poorly lit building.

“Yeah, just so you know this is why I’m still only trusting you cuz you can time travel!”

_ I’m still not sure if I trust this guy, or believe him one hundred percent, but I’ll do anything to prevent another timeline from ending. _

_ This isn’t happening again on my watch. _

With that having been said, the Flash hurried out. Now fast if not possibly faster than Sonic himself, it was practically milliseconds before he was out of the facility in a burst of red wind and back out into the harsh breezes and heavily heated air of the once great city outside.

Not having any real clue as to where Shadow was besides him being in this same very city at this same very moment in time, the Flash mostly just wandered rapidly throughout the torched streets and shattered highways, dashing up to the rooftops to briefly stop and get better views - though it proved difficult to make anything out in such a vast and expensive landscape of destruction. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to find anything, if he was being honest.

It was all the same.

Death, Destruction, Fire and Lava.

That was truly all that there was.

Nothing more, nothing less.

_ I can feel him laughing right now..I can hear him in the wind… _

_ He got them killed… _

_ My friends… _

_ My family… _

_ He won, even though we got him in the end, he still won… _

_ And he knows it… _

_ He’s laughing at me… _

_ Taunting me… _

_ Get out of my head! _

The memories of what longer existed yet again overwhelmed the Flash as he overlooked what remained of the future. Holding his head as he fell to his knees with a scream, all he could hear was the cold, maniacal laughter of the sadistic madman known to him as ‘Darkseid’. He could not see the monster, but the sound of his laughter was as clear to him as if the demonic ‘god’ was not more than a foot away.

He began to sweat profusely. The purple sparks were ignited left and right from his body, and even his vision was flashing from normal to purple as the laughter of that monster intensified. Visions of those lost wouldn’t go away either. It was as though they were standing directly in front of him, even though he knew they were long gone.

_ Conner… _

_ Hal... _

_ Barbara… _

_ Billy… _

_ Zatanna… _

_ J’honn… _

_ Arthur… _

_ Mera… _

_ Dick.... _

_ Wallace.... _

_ Iris.... _

Thinking of whatever fate Iris had met in his previous timeline finally set the man over the edge. His vision firmly turned purple as his eyes were surrounded by electrified purple energy. He let out a loud scream into the heavens, his sweat still coming profusely from his body, heart racing to it’s limit, and lungs being just as equally stressed.

“LEAVE ME ALONE YOU SADISTIC BASTARD!” he screamed as he stood up and turned around, having expected Darkseid to be there. At first, he was, and the Flash charged at him with more anger than he honestly knew he had. He didn’t want Darkseid defeated. He wanted Darkseid  _ dead. _ Except the moment he would have made contact with the warlord, the tall red-eyed conqueror vanished. Flash had to stop himself from rushing over the ledge of the rooftop he was standing upon, as it was a one way drop into a massive lake of burning hot lava.

The Flash’s eyes widened as they returned to reality. His heart and lungs still raced, but his vision returned to normal. He fell to his knees again, holding his forehead as he comprehended just what was going on.

_ I should be forgetting this happened… _

_ I want to forget that any of this ever happened.... _

_ Why can’t I? Why can’t that sadistic monster and everything he did just leave my memories forever? _

Barry closed his eyes, letting out from them a long stream of tears. For most of those he remembered, he did not get subjected to their horrific fates - though he was informed of those he missed. Now their memories echoed throughout his fragile mind. With every second he spent here in this hellish place, it felt as though his mental state was increasingly close to shattering. Yet somehow, the actual destruction of whatever weak piece of string held it all together did not come. Whether through sheer willpower or some other force, he did not know. All he knew was that while he certainly wasn’t as there as he wanted to be, he wasn’t all gone either.

The worst part for him was for those fates that couldn’t be confirmed.

He never found out what happened to Iris or to the first Kid Flash, ‘Wally’, in the previous timeline. They were only presumed deceased. 

He knew better than to think too hard about the previous incarnation of Iris. Even beginning to imagine it filled his mind with feelings of both intense grief and equally intense rage. He wanted nothing more than to give Darkseid true justice for the lives his army ended and ruined. The only solace he had here was that Darkseid no longer existed.

_ But it still feels like he does…. _

Standing up and looking back on the skyline of the lifeless cityscape, the Flash took a deep breath. His quest to locate the ‘ultimate lifeform’ in this mess was not going to be easy, but if Mephiles was telling the truth then it had to be done in order to prevent this horrible future from being a reality.

His motivation restored, Barry resumed the quest.

The best way for him to not let that beast continue to rule over his mind, was for him to focus on running. To never let his mind stay on the subject for too long. He hoped that as soon as he was no longer in this nightmare of a future, perhaps he would be able to be his completely old self again.

Wishful thinking always was a hallmark of humanity.

Deep down, he knew that Barry was slowly dying. Decaying away, soon to be gone forever. He most likely would never again feel like ‘his old self’, and to be honest he didn’t really know what that meant anymore.

He was convinced he never truly would ever again.

For the most part, there wasn’t much to this city. All he had to do was maintain his fast speed and resulting momentum and the massive canyons of molten magma were easily avoided. There were moments when the remnant highways he landed on would begin crumbling not long after his weight was added to them, sending large concrete balls and other debris his way, though with his speed restored they were nothing to dodge - and he likewise was capable of jumping from the dilapidated highway roads to the destroyed remains of buildings easily.

It was ever impossible to tell what purpose any of these buildings served in ‘life’, however. He was sure most of them were residential or office buildings, based on their shape. He thought he had seen one or two malls while scaling along some of the rooftops, but nothing of use appeared to be inside.

All in all, so far there wasn’t much to traversing the city as long as he had his powers. Finding Shadow on the other hand…

“I know what he looks like” Barry said to himself while scoping out one of the abandoned city blocks he managed to come across, taking a break from collapsing highways and rooftops, “Black with red stripes. Red eyes. About three or maybe four feet tall. Once I saw him, I could never miss him. But how do I see him?”

Barry saw a series of road and sidewalk fragments led upwards, almost like a staircase made up of the destroyed city itself. Figuring he could get a better look he quickly dashed over to it and climbed it until he reached the top ‘stair’ and with one hand over his eyes scoped out the horizon around him. 

_ Still nothing but ruins. And….that.. _

‘That’ referred to a usually rare tornado of fire. Despite common belief, they did exist even in the previous timeline, though as to be expected in this world they were likely more common. This one however, was far more massive than any tornado the Flash had ever seen before - it’s size and diameter both were akin to a kaiju in sheer scale, the superhero appearing as little more than a blip to it as it stood in place within a lake of red magma - the heat could still be felt by Barry even though he was far beneath it, let alone the fact he could see the waves of it in the air the closer he was to it.

The more he looked at this tornado though, at how it remained in place, at how it was made purely of fire. At how it did not seem to have a natural origin from the sky. The realization soon hit him:

_ This is not a normal tornado.... _

_ I should probably not spend too much time near it… _

Barry was about to speed away from the tornado, when suddenly he heard a loud, bellowing roar from the direction of the tornado. In a flash he turned around to face the fiery ‘tower’ once again, not wanting to believe that a tornado had roared. He even mentally remarked:

_ If that thing just roared at me, then it’s definitely not a normal tornado… _

As if to prove him correct, from the tornado suddenly spawned a small army of creatures. Creatures seemingly made of molten rock, fire and magma. Barry couldn’t believe his eyes. These were the same moderately large, screeching bat-like beings that he had witnessed while walking these streets with Mephiles - only now they were outright hostile towards him.

Illuminated by the fires they were made of, these creatures screeched just like the earth creatures they reminded Barry of. However, even though these creatures were small and nimble in appearance, that wasn’t how his mind soon began to portray them as. 

Within seconds, these creatures became paradooms - horrifying abominations. Some of the ugliest creatures he’d ever laid his eyes upon. Dark, soulless eyes. Large, hulking bodies caked with scarlet red armor, and two metallic bat-like wings protruding from their backs. Their snow white hair that dropped from their heads was unmistakable and gave off their relation to Doomsday - from whom half of their DNA was taken from.

Seeing them again, Barry shook. He was frozen in terror.

These things had no right to exist. These things were abominations, a spit on the face to existence itself. These horrible monstrosities had killed so many people, ruined so many lives. These mindless, heartless creatures. These beasts. Yet here they were, charging at Barry as though they didn’t care at all - like true creatures from the deepest pits of Hell itself.

_ No.... _

_ Not these things… _

_ NOT AGAIN! _

Barry ran from them. He ran from them as fast as speed could, though they did not give up the chase.

_ No! _

_ Not again! _

He could still hear their nightmarish roars and hisses. Those horrifying sounds. Forever etched in his mind. The last things so many good, innocent people heard before they died. Besides the sound of their own screams as they were slaughtered as though they were nothing but trash.

He was willing to run for as long a distance as he could to get away from these hideous creatures, these insults to creation itself. These things did not deserve existence. These things did not deserve life - not after taking so much of it away from others.

_ Conner...that poor kid...they took him out like he was just nothing to him, threw him away like he was garbage… _

_ Hal...Zatanna....Billy….they ate a fucking kid. They. Ate. A. Fucking. Kid. _

_ All those people...all those innocent people...slaughtered. By these fucking monsters. These fucking abominations from Hell… _

_ These things don’t deserve to fucking live… _

It was just as that last sentence crossed his mind that he was stopped in his tracks by a piercing headache. He fell directly to the heated asphalt beneath his feet as he ached and writhed in pain. His eyes yet again flashing purple as he groaned and gritted his teeth, the pain truly unbearable. It was as though something were scratching and gnawing on his brain itself, making him scream out in absolute agony.

Purple sparks and bolts flew from his body as he dealt with this pain. All while the paradooms began to surround him in the air above. Just as he looked up to see them, he was just as quickly distracted by two more bursting from the ground itself - large craters now situated beneath them. That’s not to mention the ones walking in towards him from the shadows - resulting in the Flash being absolutely surrounded. In the midst of his piercing, agonizing migraine. 

_ Nnngh, ugh, my brain feels like it is on fire right now. _

_ And now these things are surrounding me....again… _

_ I guess you win again, Darkseid....I can only hope that eventually someone gives you everything you fucking deserve.... _

Barry closed his eyes at that point, between this headache and witnessing these beasts again, he was ready for the cold embrace of death. He could only hope that once in death, he would finally be rid of these horrible memories, never again to be plagued by them.

That was, until he began to imagine the pain and suffering these things caused. 

_ Conner...they snapped your neck….like it was nothing. They threw you away like you were garbage...when you weren’t...you were a bright kid. You had so much potential...you deserved to experience more of the world, more of the actual world. You deserved so much more than to just be treated like that… _

_ Billy….you were just a fucking kid. You were just a fucking kid. One of the best members of the League too...I’ll never forget you. We should’ve never gone there. We should have thought of a better way….if only...if only we had. _

_ J’honn...Mera...Arthur….bringing you guys to a fucking fire world….you guys deserved better than that. Should’ve left you guys behind to help protect the Titans. They could’ve used the help…. _

_ Wally, Wallace….you kids....you guys were awesome. Sometimes you were pains, but I couldn’t ask for better nephews. If I had known what was going to happen to you guys, I would’ve done something….I’m sorry your new future’s going to end up sucking again, because of me.... _

Then, one final person crossed his mind once more.

_ Iris....I’m so sorry....I don’t even know if they….if they….what they…..what they… _

“What they....”

Suddenly, his acceptance of impending death had transformed into rage. Remaining on the ground, he looked up at one of the paradooms looming over him. An intense, rage filled glare. The purple filling both his eyes as well as his vision now served almost like fire quite literally in his eyes - and his migraine as flames burning within his head. Seeing Iris impaled upon his monster’s garish claws, blood seeping from her stomach as well as dripping from her mouth while her lifeless pupils locked themselves directly down on Barry himself proved all the motivation that he needed.

With an enraged leap he lunged onto the creature and managed to tackle it to the ground with the sheer amount of speed and kinetic force that his anger had managed to generate.

The beast screamed in agony, but Barry was not done yet. He grabbed a rock from the crumbling street and began to relentlessly bash in the monster’s face. With absolutely nothing being held back. He bashed at this beast's eyes. He based at it’s cheeks. He based at it’s jaw. It’s teeth. He even could see some of them flying out, the creature’s blue goop ‘blood’ flying alongside them.

He heard this thing crying. Perhaps for mercy, but it would receive none. He wanted to see this thing  _ die _ . He bashed that stone into it hard and fast enough that the stone itself was chipping away. Enough times so that the creature’s entire head was virtually non-existent. Reduced to a puddle of it’s tar-like blood and what few remnants of it’s head remained.

Then came it’s ‘partner’.

Seeing Wally and Wallace impaled by that thing’s two claws as though they were food on the end of a fork as it roared out in anger - before it began spitting fire directly at him. It was all he needed to know where he stood with this thing. Circling around it with his speed for a few rounds, he first grabbed hold of a large shard of broken glass from one of the dilapidated shops this specific street corner had lined up along either side. He decided to give this thing the feeling it had given his nephews, and using the massive broken window pane as a shield from the fire he jammed it directly into the monster’s torso. It gave but one final shriek of pain before it fell over, still writhing and bubbling up it’s own blood, before he sped over to another rock and tossed it as head - just to make sure it was deceased.

Hearing these things cry out in pain was music to the Flash’s ears.

The fight wasn’t over yet though. Still glaring and in battle stance, he was greeted by one who had done something particularly horrific. One of the ones which walked out from the shadows held in his hands the young, once energetic Superboy. His black fade haircut and all, though his eyes closed. His neck snapped out of it’s place as he lay lifeless in the arms of this devilish beast that killed him.

It didn’t deserve to live.

None of them did.

Snarling at his foe, the Flash first tried to attack with his speed and a direct body slam - though had to detour due to being attacked by this thing’s fire breath - as well as dodge the fire breath of the other three on the field. He headed over to the corpse that he had impaled with glass. Moving quickly, he jabbed out a small piece from the glass - a piece thick enough to do the work he had planned for it.

Without even cracking a smile, he dashed back at the abomination that held Conner in its arms. The moment it tried to fire it’s breath at him once more he jumped for it. He flipped in the air and actually easily kicked one of the flying paradooms into the wall of a nearby building - impaling it on a rusted flagpole, before landing behind the creature he was actually targeting. 

Before it could even turn around, he leaped onto his neck and within less than a second jammed the shard of glass into its neck. Though it cut into his own flesh as well, he made sure it sank far deeper into its own with its jagged ends. The abomination screeched, but soon gurgled as the makeshift knife was drilled deeper into its throat - soon rendering it incapable of crying for mercy, let alone anything for that matter. Flash was not done however. He wanted this thing to know what it feels like to have it’s neck so brutally broken. As hard as it was with such thick skin and flesh, he slit the beasts throat wide open. As it continued to gurgle and choke, clawing at its punctured throat - he repeatedly stabbed it. As hard and as fast as he could. Whatever arteries it had in there, they were soon reduced to mush. Barry stood on top of it’s back once it finally fell to the ground, a puddle of it’s tar ‘blood’ forming beneath it within seconds afterwards.

Even still, Barry felt it deserved worse.

As for the others, they did not last much longer either. With his powers restored Barry was easily able to make short work of them.

The ones in the air attempted to send spiked fireballs down at him like exploding bombs - with enough force Barry was able to kick each and every single one of these balls immediately back at them as they came down towards the ground, all virtually in mere milliseconds. Once they made contact with their own producers, the ‘paradoom’s were set ablaze, screaming in agony as they were roasted and fried alive, falling to the ground and dying as their bodies burned like pathetic sheets of paper.

The ones on the ground were tougher. One attempted to lunge at Barry, though he was swiftly taken out when he managed to pick up a parking meter that had long since fallen from its original position. Before the beast could even land he tossed it like a javelin into its mouth. It burst out the other end by the end of the second, making it drop to the ground before Barry’s feet. Dead.

The remaining two on the ground attempted fire breath one more time. A sewer manhole cover easily whacked them both in the head with a well timed strike - and Barry crushing some glass to fire at them like shurikens tore their faces and throats to shreds in an instant, ensuring their demise as they too soon collapsed to the ground.

With all of the visible paradooms dead, Barry’s migraine finally faded and his eyes returned to their normal state. However, the bodies of the paradooms did not go away. In fact, to his shock there appeared to be more of them. Far more of them. Legions of them. Crawling from the buildings. Descending from the air. Ascending from the ground.

They were everywhere.

Their horde even extended for miles beyond. They were only form of life for virtually the entire span of the city, it seemed.

A few minutes ago, Barry would have cowered in fear.

Now, however, he showed no fear at all.

He was going to give these beasts exactly what they deserved.

“Let’s Dance.”

The following few seconds can best be described as a massacre. A massacre of ‘paradooms’. Barry spared not a single one of them as he blazed through time. At times the mere act of ramming into them at full throttle was enough to shatter their entire bodies to pieces. Others caught fire from the trail left behind him. When he did make direct moves on them such as punches, slides, or kicks, the majority of them died from just the one strike. Barry didn’t know if it was the new strength and energy he was feeling earlier, or if they were just genuinely this pathetic as of now.

Either way, he was not complaining.

With each of these hideous beasts that fell, another of their victims was finally avenged. Given the justice they deserved.

It was a long time coming.

He felt little to no sympathy for any of these demons. Not after what they did to Iris. To Wally. To Wallace. To Conner. To Zatanna. To Hal. To Billy. To Mera. To Arthur. To J’Honn. To Diana. To Dick. To Jaime. To Garfield. To Donna. To Roy. To Karen. To Everyone.

Normally, heroes were not supposed to murder, or kill. He took no pleasure in the act of killing these things. 

He took pleasure in avenging the lives they ended, and the timeline they ruined.

Blazing through the destroyed city taking out Paradooms all the way through, Barry left a trail of their remains in his wake. For some of his ‘victims’, there was hardly anything left to even consider remains. Those were usually the ones destroyed by how fast he was charging into them.

He had no idea where his legs were taking him anymore, or if he was anywhere close to finding Shadow. As long as he was decreasing the population of paradooms however, he did not seem to care.

By the end of the horde he was standing on a rooftop, panting and huffing. The flashing purple vision had returned as he recovered his breath - though thankfully not the piercing headache. At least, not for now.

Looking behind him, he could still see the trail of deceased paradooms extending for miles behind him as he recovered his breath and gave a moment for his racing heart to calm itself down. He was not proud of the act of killing, in fact he was ashamed of it. However, these were not civilians. These were not ordinary villains. These were monsters. More lives are saved by their deaths, than by their continued living. They needed to die. Perhaps if they had let their victims have burials, he would have been more merciful to them.

He overlooked the skyline one final time - no remaining paradooms. All of the flying ones had either been impaled with broken parking meters or otherwise set aflame with their own fireballs - screaming while they burned to death. 

It was only when he looked down at the abandoned streets below that he saw something that made his eyes widen once more - as though he was seeing ghosts far below him.

“It...can’t be.”

There they were. Victor Stone - Cyborg, and Zatanna. Victor’s silver-and-red cybernetic upgrades were unmistakable, as was him being the only dark skinned man for miles in this hellscape. Zatanna’s long dark hair and black-white outfit was the same one she wore during the assault on Apokolips - though she seemed completely fine, as though she too perfectly regenerated from all of her wounds. What concerned Barry however, was two things. One was that Victor seemed to be unconscious or dead, as he was in a sitting position with his head lowered - completely unresponsive. The second, was that Zatanna was talking to a man he dreaded as though she was doing business with him it seemed.

Darkseid.

It was undeniably Darkseid. 

He was huge, charcoal black, with horrifying red eyes. His armor was just as black as his soul, if he even had one. He dwarfed Zatanna in size, and his face alone could be considered a weapon of mass destruction. Let alone the rest of his hulking, imposing body. Worst yet, he seemed to be pulling something out of Cyborg’s body. Something green, and glowing. With a gasp, once it was in the light of the fiery sky, Barry saw precisely what it was.

“It’s a chaos emerald! Oh crap, Darkseid’s got a chaos emerald! I don’t know what those things are even fully capable of but if they can restore my powers then that is no good! No good at all! What the heck am I gonna do now?!”

Slapping himself before he fast-talked himself into further levels of insanity, Barry refocused himself on Darkseid and Zatanna. He didn’t know why Zatanna seemed to be standing beside and talking to Darkseid so casually, though two reasonings arrived in his head before long:

_ Either she’s betraying us and joining his side, or she’s under his mind control. _

_ Either way, I’ve got to get that chaos emerald away from his ass a.s.a.p! Gotta act fast! _

Without wasting any further time, Barry immediately rushed for Darkseid. At the speed of light he slammed within Darkseid within the second, managing to slam him into a building on the other side of the street by using only one arm - with Barry himself taking a sharp turn with intent of striking again after turning back - not even letting Darkseid recover before slamming into him again. And then again. Then about two more times, before Darkseid finally had just enough seconds to hold the chaos emerald into the air, and let out but two words:

“Chaos Control!”

Within an instant a green flash came from the emerald, and Barry was stunned. Just before he slammed his fist into Darkseid, he was practically frozen in place. As though time itself around him had just suddenly stopped. What’s worse, was that it did not stop for Darkseid. He was able to move around completely unaffected by whatever it was that the emerald had just done. Barry was fully at his mercy.

Then Darkseid jumped in the air, and roundhouse kicked Barry directly in the back of the head.

In an instant, Barry was snapped out of whatever stopping of time he was a part of - though he felt every bit of the hard slam to the back of his head. It immediately brought back both the flash of purple vision for a few more seconds as well as the splitting migraine - making Barry hold his head in pain for a few moments before standing back up and looking at where Darkseid was standing. Except once he did so, there was no Darkseid at all. Instead, there was only a certain black furred Hedgehog, holding the green chaos emerald and holding a strong battle stance while not removing his eyes from Barry for a single second.

He had located Shadow.

Zatanna and Victor were ‘gone’ as well. In their place was a deactivated, bulky robot that sported colors of red, gold and black though was covered in exuberant amounts of dust. Not a single ounce of flesh present on the machine. Zatanna was ‘replaced’ by a 3-4 foot tall literal bat woman, that is to say a woman with the ears of a bat, wings sprouting from her back, and a black latex outfit with pink ‘hearts’ on her boots and chest. As well as lipstick. She seemed just as battle ready as Shadow himself.

_ Nope, this timeline is still crazy weird to me. _

_ But no time to think about that, I’m in the middle of a fight, focus Barry! Focus! _

Barry gazed at his opponent with a glare in his eye, trying to get a good read of him. Judging by the look in Shadow’s eyes and on his face, he was doing much the same. The look in Shadow’s eyes especially was familiar to Barry. It was almost as though Shadow knew one hundred percent what was doing, or was planning on what to do for his next move. Or perhaps even both. Yet again did a chill run down Barry’s spine.

_ I’m getting a lot of Batman vibes from his voice already, I hope he’s more like Bruce and not like Thomas.... _

It didn’t take very long for both to figure out that the two of them were both waiting for the other to attempt the next strike. Remembering what Mephiles had said of Shadow in his briefing, Barry did not want to underestimate him any more than he already had. Shadow, for his part, seemed not the type to underestimate an opponent either - especially one that’s already gotten a few surprise hits on him.

Rather than a direct strike, Barry decided to instead at least get some confirmation to what he technically already knew:

“Shadow? Shadow the Hedgehog?”

Shadow grunted in response, not saying a single word. His only response was a nod, confirming that Barry’s assumption was correct. Without removing his eye contact, Barry responded:

“Well alright then.”

Barry wasted no further time in engaging in battle with the so-called ‘ultimate lifeform’ - though he dared not get too close. Instead he used his arms and rapidly twirled them around, using his sheer speed to create two large vortexes of wind - like tornadoes being generated from his very own body. The aim was to get Shadow to ‘come’ directly to him, though naturally quite a fair bit more than just Shadow was hurled around. 

The bat girl herself had to extend her wings and visibly struggled not to get sucked into Barry’s swirling spirals of fast moving wind, though the moment she had almost slipped and surrendered Shadow had swiftly managed to resist the wind enough to get her out of it’s direct path, before letting himself fly towards Barry.

Barry had honestly thought he was ready to pull in the Hedgehog and and was prepared to strike him, though he didn’t expect one thing:

“Chaos Spear!’

Suddenly, a bolt of yellow energy struck Barry directly in the chest - interrupting his whirlwinds and sending him onto the ground upon his back. For anyone without a fast acting healing factor, those burns would certainly sting. The ‘spear’ felt not too unlike Clark’s heat rays or Victor’s own energy weapons, though thankfully he was not incinerated.

Either way, soon Shadow had his foot on Barry’s chest, standing atop him. Having Shadow’s shoes step on a fresh and just healing burn made the Flash let out a bit of a hiss as he looked up at this enemy - the look of the light behind Shadow made the Hedgehog almost look like an eclipse before Barry’s eyes, mostly darkened out with an aura of light behind him. Coupled with the look in his eyes, that glaring, unamused look that demanded answers as well as respect - it was a very familiar glare.

_ Hi Bruce…you’ve really shrunk, ya know that? _

Shadow however, was not Bruce by any means:

“Identify yourself and state your business.”

Still glaring at his opponent, Barry did at least give him enough respect to be technically correct:

“Me? Oh I’m nobody special, just the Flash.”

Suddenly smirking, Barry used another one of his recently restored powers. Vibrating and ultra fast speeds he was able to soon enough make himself intangible. Caught off guard, Shadow’s feet went from standing atop Barry’s body to touching the ground, while Barry himself rolled to be directly beside Shadow - standing up before letting himself become entirely physical again. Before Shadow could strike him with a second chaos spear Barry made sure to take off at his fast speed again, intending to do another hit-and-run move on the Hedgehog. 

However, Shadow was now onto him and used his own speed - revealing his shoes to indeed be ‘rocket shoes’ that allowed him to hover over the ground as though he was skating on it. He was actually able to skate practically just as fast as Barry could run - making himself into a formidable adversary for the human speedster as he had just performed his turn at the end of a ledge at the street and was on his way to make contact with Shadow once more.

Seeing his enemy barreling towards him at seemingly matching speed was not an expected sight, but the Flash was never one to back down from a challenge. He prepared for impact.

And then it was made.

Shadow and the Flash clashed. First they punched each other directly in the face - both grunting as contact with each other's skin was made. With the Flash using his sheer momentum and Shadow having natural super strength, both were sent flying back to either end of the street they were on - both of them just barely evading falling off into the pits of lava beneath them. For Barry, it felt as though Clark had just decked him square in the jaw. He was beginning to understand the meaning behind ‘Ultimate Lifeform’, and pondered…

_ I wonder if this guy has any equivalent of Kryptonite...if not, then Meph basically just sent me on a suicide mission… _

Both Shadow and Barry wiped blood that had managed to come from their mouths from their punches, and immediately charged at each other again, all while the female bat watched. A black blur charging at a red blur was all she could really make out due to how fast the two were. She could see them constantly crashing repeatedly, slamming each other with their speed over and over - sending each other into the buildings around them as she watched, unable to match their speeds.

However, while Barry’s strength was an illusion caused by his use of inertia and momentum, Shadow had both speed and strength, meaning every time it was his punches or kicks that strucke Barry - the latter took more damage than when it was the former getting struck. However, Barry’s healing factor as well as ability to evade getting into a string of repeated strikes and properly strike back proved invaluable in avoiding defeat.

However, there was one major weakness that Barry had which he overlooked. At only three or perhaps four feet tall, Barry could hardly tell, Shadow was an easy target to miss and easily dodged the larger human man’s punches and kicks more than he was struck by them. Adversely, Barry’s larger size made him an easier target for Shadow to strike. Still, the Flash’s endurance at the very least allowed him to compensate for this.

Barry could tell one thing, however:

_ Either the chaos emerald made me stronger and-or more durable, or this guy is holding back. Or both. _

_ If it’s both, then I really wish he was on my side. _

The battle raged on for a few more moments. Shadow would stop in the air only to deliver chaos spears towards Barry, though the red blur would successfully dodged them, only be struck into the window of one of the street corner stores by Shadow curling into a ball and ramming directly into him, and then proceeding to ram into the Flash again by spinning in ball form along the ground like a homing bowling ball. It hurt just about as much, too.

Barry got up and managed to take things back out to the street outside however, and managed to successfully evade a surprise karate chop from Shadow, only to get kicked in the gut by the rodent’s foot - yet again sent to the ground.

“I don’t have time for this” Shadow remarked as he looked at Barry getting up again, with his bat companion descending from the air to be at his side. Keeping his eyes locked on Barry, Shadow continued to be ever demanding, “I suggest you give up and tell me who you are now, because I’m not going to entertain you much longer than I already have.”

“Heh” Barry smirked as he readied his battle stance once more, “You really think it’s gonna be that easy?”

“Very well.”

One last time, Barry charged at Shadow with intent on a direct hit. However, pulling out the chaos emerald one more time Shadow was yet again able to freeze Barry in place with a swift use of chaos control.

The Flash could only watch as Shadow jumped into the air and kneed him directly in the jaw - breaking him out of the freezing as well as sending him into the air with strength akin to Barry’s old timeline friend ‘Clark’. Barry had little time to react before in a flash of green chaos energy, Shadow seemingly teleported directly above him, slamming his fists down on Barry’s head and sending him barreling back down for the ground below - before Shadow appeared repeatedly in mid-air, teleporting in order to smack Barry around in the air with punches and kicks as though he were a ball on a pinball table. He fought with the strength of an irritated kryptonian, despite his size managing to effortlessly toss around the full grown human as though he were nothing. 

The final hits came when Barry was again smacked upwards, and in quick succession back down to the ground - creating a sizable impact crater upon landing due to the sheer strength of Shadow’s hit mixed with the momentum picked up by Barry as he fell. 

Wanting to end this battle as quickly as possible, Shadow generated two flashing purple-blue spheres of chaos energy from his hands, and with perfect precision fired them as beams at Barry with only seconds needed to charge them. Barry braced himself for their impact - though that didn’t stop the burning heat. It was though he had just been struck with Koriand’rs own energy attacks, though perhaps it was still more like Clark and Conner’s eye beams. Either way, it was a searing heat of an energy blast - whatever chaos energy was, one fact remained true in that it  _ burned _ .

Barry was grateful for his healing factor, though it could not heal that the wind had been successfully knocked out of him and there was no way that he was able to continue the fight. He had to concede defeat to Shadow, at least for now. 

Shadow and his bat companion soon stood on the edge of the crater that was created by Barry’s impact with the ground, watching as Barry struggled to stand up once more - though it was clear by his panting and huffing that he was not in any condition to continue the fight any longer. As much as he continued glaring at Shadow, who silently stared at him before asking him once more:

“I’ll ask again, who are you and why are you here?”

After catching his breathe enough to speak, Barry replied:

“I said who I was, I’m the Flash. As for why I’m here, I’m here to stop you.”

“Stop me from what?”

“Mephiles sent me, to stop you from destroying the world.”

Hearing the dark one’s name made both Shadow and his companion widen their eyes, looking to each other silently for a moment before turning back to Barry - Shadow with more angry look as all he said to Barry was a very blunt line of truth:

“Mephiles?”

Barry nodded.

“Considering it was him who sent me into this future, I can only assume he wanted you to kill me, sending you to do his dirty work. That, or he sent you on a suicide mission to serve as a distraction for me.”

“Wha-what are you talking about?” Barry responded, approaching Shadow with minor bouts of stumbling, “The files, the articles, they talked about....”

“Whatever they said, I’m sure it was a lie!” the bat companion exclaimed, interrupting Barry could continue speaking. Her voice was young, though not that young. She was at least 18, or perhaps in her 20’s -30’s. “If you’re putting your trust in Mephiles, then you must be seriously naive!”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, crossing his arms. He agreed with his companion, though seemed to still be curious about what precisely the ‘articles’ said. Still, he did not question it further. 

Barry was still reeling from his prior hallucinations and the battle itself, though seeing as how Shadow did not kill him in cold blood and while brutal did not seem to be truly bloodthirsty - at least not yet, he had good reason to believe Shadow to be more trustworthy than Mephiles. While Mephiles did see his powers restored, it did seem as though Shadow’s side of things perfectly complemented Mephiles’ own.

Still, there was a massive share of unanswered questions:

“Still, if you’re not the destroyer of this timeline, of this world...what are you?”

Shadow closed his eyes for a few seconds, before opening them as he bluntly informed Barry of just who he was:

“I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate lifeform created to protect the planet earth as well as G.U.N.’s top elite agent operative.”

“And I’m Rouge the Bat” the bat companion beside Shadow said in an almost flirtatious voice, “World renowned treasure hunter, and also a G.U.N. agent on the side.”

_ Government Agents…great… _

“And, well, as I said before, I’m the Flash” Barry said, to Shadow’s continued silent suspicion, by now fully having put himself back together following the battle. “I’m really glad we’re all acquainted with each other!” he then dashed to join Shadow and Rouge on the outside of the crater, “Now I do apologize for that attacking you thing, but if you don’t mind, can you explain to me what the heck is going on?”

“From what me and Shadow found on a computer not that long ago” Rouge explained, “We’ve been sent 200 years into the future. As to how we encountered Mephiles in the first place, all you need to know is that it was on a mission and most of the details are classified, Honey”.

“Yeah, I get it, your government agents.”

“Hmph” Shadow almost rolled his eyes, though he kept distrustful eye contact with Barry.

“So basically” Barry responded as he was finally mentally placing all of the pieces together, “Mephiles sent all of us to this future, and then convinced me to go after you in order to kill you.”

“It would seem so”, Shadow nodded.

“And, where’d you get that emerald from?”

“From this future’s version of my team member, E-123 ‘Omega’” Shadow explained, gesturing to the dust-covered robot, “And that’s enough questions for now, we have work to do.”

Shadow began to storm off at that point, with Rouge following him. While Shadow clearly could care less, Rouge at least turned back to Barry to say in a much more pleasant tone of voice:

“Don’t mind him, it’s just always business with that one.”

“Oh, I can get used to that kind of attitude no problem.”

Rouge chuckled, Shadow grumbled, though let the two continue speaking - he wasn’t  _ that  _ much of a jerk. 

“You might want to tag along with us too” Rouge continued to say, “Considering you probably wouldn’t want to stay  _ here _ longer than you have to.”

Barry was quick to catch up to Shadow and Rouge as they traversed the hellish landscape of the destroyed city, this time together. Having companions managed to minimize the risk of Barry having further hallucinations - at least for the time being. Something about how familiar yet different Shadow and Rouge were managed to make him feel as though he were still in a timeline that he would consider recognizable. 

He wasn’t quite sure who precisely they reminded him of entirely, though he had some mental comparisons being made in his head.

Still, traversing the lifeless landscape of death, destruction and ruins even with two impromptu teammates still was quite a lonely endeavor. Jumping - or in Rouge’s cases flying - from cliff of street to slowly sinking building onto another cliff of street or slowly melting segment of highway with only the ambience of fire as background noise persisted to make Barry long for a return to the present, even the war against Apokolips had a more hopeful outcome for earth than this. As Barry realized that the two were leading him to the outskirts of the city where things looked less like the ruins of a civilization and more like a genuine hellish dimension, he decided to ask at least a few more questions:

“So, quick question, but you guys do know where you’re headed to, right?”

“Yes” Shadow replied as the three were dashing along a long enough stretch of highway to warrant actually running along it - Rouge’s flight miraculously managed to keep up with the other two as Shadow explained, “Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were sent here by Eggman. They’re waiting for us in the outskirts of the city.”

“Wow, wonder how that happened…”

“Hmph”

“And one more question?” Barry asked, with Shadow silently looking back at him again curiously, “Were you holding back against me back there? Or what? I never thought a Hedgehog would be able to hit that hard.”

“You're lucky that I was.”

Barry did not know what to say in response to that, and so just continued following Shadow and Rouge silently, heading for the outskirts of the city. Watching the skyline of destroyed buildings become replaced by a skyline of black volcanoes - and what light there was in this nightmarish world continued to grow dimmer the further the three were from the city.

_ Hopefully we’ll get out of here soon… _

_ And I definitely have some words for Mephiles next time I see him… _


	6. Elise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elise POV chapter as she remembers the events of the story-line up to this point that she has been a part of, and finally learns the truth in that her country is not without evil's of it's own for that matter. 
> 
> Contains major Elise character development.
> 
> And also a certain ninja lizard boy....and some "shout-outs" ;)

With everything that was going on in and around Soleanna - as well as the time stream for that matter, it was easy for one to forget one of the people who the events seemed to center around. That person being the young, no older than fifteen in fact, Princess Elise III of Soleanna. Kidnapped twice by Dr. Eggman in the span of just a few hours, the auburn haired teenager sat alone in a cold metallic cell. All she had with her was the clothes upon her body, and the thoughts within her head.

Even as she looked down at her lap, even as her face frowned and her arms folded, she remained strong. She did not shed a tear. Even in this, one of her darkest hours yet, she reminded herself of when she was a young girl resting her head upon her father’s lap. His words, his voice, repeated in her head:

_“Be a strong Duchess, Elise. Don’t cry, no matter what happens”._

_“Be Brave…”_

It took all the strength within her to not cry remembering her father again. She was sure that if he were still upon the earth, Eggman would not have dared kidnap her. 

However, there was nothing she could do to change the fact he was gone.

Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on memories that didn’t bring her to the verge of tears. All she could get into her mental imagery however, were the events of the previous hours - Sonic. The blue wind. Not quite the knight in shining armor that one would expect to save a kidnapped princess, though Elise was not one to complain. She remembered being first held at Eggman’s impromptu outpost in the various ancient ruins in Soleanna’s great Dusty Desert, with Sonic and Tails arriving to save her, having the perfect opportunity to do so due to the Egg Carrier needing to land in order to be properly refueled. 

She remembered watching Sonic square off against that massive, black robotic dog that the mad roboticist had sent after him and Tails. The robot was more than incapable of matching Sonic’s speed - and was outsmarted by the Hedgehog simply grabbing hold of the horn atop its head and forcing him to ram into the walls and statues of the impromptu arena that they fought in. Elise watched all of it with awe, and smiled hopefully once the robot was finally successfully vanquished. 

Watching the one-headed ‘Egg Cerberus’ fall to the sand-drenched stone beneath it as it short circuited and succumbed to the damage Sonic gave to it was satisfying to her - not because of the robot’s fall, but because it meant Sonic had managed to at least temporarily rescue her from Eggman’s clutches.

The best part of her temporary time being rescued was what came after though. Sonic whisking her through the desert, giving her more thrills than she ever had in her entire sheltered life as he destroyed any robot that came after them - Tails successfully holding a larger armada of them off, and eventually taking a ‘pit stop’ in a beautiful plain of lush, green grass and winding hills. Her and Sonic had a good laugh about it as their excitement calmed down, before she took notice of a minor cut he had on his arm.

“You’re hurt!” she had said to him, though he was quick to brush it off:

“Oh that? Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing.”

“Don’t say that! Here, let me fix it” with a slight chuckle, she insisted - and he relented, as she cut off a small portion of her white dress and used it as a makeshift bandage for Sonic’s arm. It was the least she could do, after all he’s done for her so far. However, she couldn’t help but feel guilt for the small cut, as small as it was, it would not have happened if not for what she held inside of her - “I’m sorry” she said as he remained kneeled down to Sonic’s eye level, “It’s all my fault.”

“Hey” Sonic said to her, gaining her attention, “Smile!” 

Looking at her, he wagged his finger as if to say that her frowning was not what he had signed up for, though his nose soon became the brief resting spot for a butterfly as he did this. Both he and Elise froze and looked at the small winged creature so delicate and silent. So pure.With a smile, Elise reached out a hand to the creature - though it flew away from the two once she did. There was then soft laughing from both of the two, as one does with such small yet lovable moments in life. They watched it as it flew off into the sky above the grass-covered hills, following the breezes of the wind to wherever it’s next destination was.

That was when Sonic commented:

“Your smile, that’s all I need.”

As Sonic began to walk casually away from Elise, the princess softly chuckled once more before following after him - the two walking side by side at a ‘normal’ pace, enjoying the clear blue sky, bright sunlight and peaceful breeze while Sonic finally had enough time to get some important questions out of the way:

“Eggman mentioned something about the ‘flames of disaster’, is that why he’s after you?”

“Yes” Elise explained, “The name of the sun god our country honors is Solaris, it is told that Solaris’ rage would destroy the world. His wrath comes in the form of the flames of disaster. 10 years ago, we almost faced the full force of his fury” she then stopped as she attempted to recall the events of ten years ago, all she remembers was her five year old self standing before her father, moments before he jumped onto her as a white flash enveloped them both, her only explanation for Sonic though was a softly spoken “I was a child then, so I don’t remember it very well…...I lost my father then….”

It was her last few words which made Sonic stop and look at her as she looked down at her hands, struggling hard to grieve without tears. However, Elise managed to collect herself as she said to Sonic:

“And now that man is trying to cause the same disaster again, what can I do?”

After a moment of her bowing down at the ground below her, soon she felt something - someone - grab onto her hand. It was Sonic, whisking her away to run with him across the hills. Of course, he body did comply with his silent urging - though she had to remind him:

“Sonic! Sonic wait, I can’t run that fast!”

Though he ignored her. Thankfully he was not going anywhere near his top speed, instead merely running with her at a slightly above average pace, as to not hurt her. Even so, Elise proved to enjoy the sensation of running with Sonic, just as she did during their trek through the desert ruins. The breeze against her hair and face, the rush and thrill of it all. The fact that they were now running through a much more peaceful environment helped as well. Stopping at a hill about a mile or so away from the one previously were standing on, Sonic said to the princess as she laid in the grass, gazing up at the beautiful sky:

“Feels great, doesn’t it?”

Panting as she caught her breath once more, Elise replied:

“Yes, I, I never ran that fast before!”

“Nothing starts until you take action!”

_Nothing starts until you take action...._

In the present, as she remained sitting on the cold metallic floor, those words continued to echo through her mind. So far, all she has been is a damsel in distress - a princess to be constantly kidnapped, and constantly rescued. She had hoped that her being rescued in the desert would have been the only time she needed to be rescued, though that ultimately turned out to be quite the wrong assumption.

Once her and Sonic had returned to the Soleanna Castle Town district, walking straight through one of the open plazas on their way to where Elise could safely be transported back to her castle, the two’s walk was interrupted by a single green ball of energy that exploded at their feet, making them both jump back with Sonic holding an arm out to protect Elise. Down from the sky descended their attacker - a white, golden eyed hedgehog with black-green boots and gloves with a mysterious cyan symbol on them - both his gloves and boots were more futuristic than most contemporary fashion - and he had several leaf-like quills protruding from his forehead while only two large quills extended from his head.

Pointing directly at Sonic, he said in a menacing tone yet not-so-intimidating voice:

“I’ve been looking for you, you’re the Iblis trigger. Your actions will condemn us all!”

_Iblis…_

Elise felt a shiver down her spine hearing that name, and felt it again while recalling the events. She had never explicitly heard that name in her life, though something about it - something in her mind if not her very soul - made it feel familiar as though it were a close friend or an even closer enemy.

Still, in that memory, she could recall Sonic standing in front of her in a protective manner - asking of the strange newcomer:

“Who are you?!”

To which, the white Hedgehog responded:

“My name is Silver. For the future of the world, I will destroy you!”

What followed was a battle between Silver and Sonic, the blue blur and the soldier of the future. Sonic, needless to say, made Silver seemingly hopeless on the ground - as Silver was incapable of reproducing any more than average walking and running speed. However, as Sonic dashed to the back of the plaza and then charged at Silver both he and Elise soon discovered Silver was far more a deadly threat than first estimated: with the sheer power of his thoughts he surrounded Sonic in a cyan aura and lifted him into the air - stopping all of his speed and momentum as well.

“It’s no use!” Silver shouted at Sonic, before sending him flying into the tables and chairs scattered around the plaza with just one more shout, “Take this!”

With a loud thud and several crashes, Sonic was now in the middle of several debris - chairs and table parts mostly. However, now levitating in the air Silver was approaching him. Realizing he had to think of an actual strategy to use against him, Sonic bought himself by running around the plaza in a circle - making sure to keep distance between himself and the white-furred attacker. Elise though, screamed as she soon was caught in the middle of Silver telekinetically lifting up a virtual army of tables, chairs and even assorted barrels into the air and beginning to hurl them like rapid fire missiles at Sonic’s speed-powered blue wind. There was nothing the princess could do besides keep a safe distance between herself and the conflict - while praying she would not get hit in the crossfire considering how much debris was flying around as the objects hit the stone floor at a velocity comparable to Sonic’s running speed.

Elise could hardly keep track of what was going on - all she could see was Sonic’s blue wind, and Silver stationary in the middle of the plaza, attempting to use virtually every object in the entire plaza as an aerial projectile against Sonic. Sonic, for his part, was trying to get a surprise attack against Silver. He did get at least one in when he slid on the floor from behind Silver - managing to trip Silver onto the floor and force him to drop all that he was carrying in that moment.

However, Silver fired another psychic energy ball at Sonic - forcing Sonic to do a flip to avoid it in time before contact - and the battle resumed immediately. Elise, watching this, only wanted it to end. Yet still, as she looked at Silver - she couldn’t help but feel as though this white hedgehog was familiar in a way. Even as she recalled him in her memory, she felt as though the two had met before the battle took place - though that couldn’t be, she doesn’t remember a Silver the Hedgehog outside of this battle.

Even in her recollection she had little time to ponder Silver’s identity however - as soon enough she recalled the end of the battle, when Sonic was successfully caught again by Silver's telekinesis following a failed surprise attack and was promptly flung directly at one of the surrounding building’s stone walls. Miraculously Sonic survived the blast, though fell to the ground in short order. As Sonic struggled to catch his breath, Silver approached him and expressed condescending disbelief in him:

“Hmph!” the Hedgehog huffed, kneeling down to get a good look at the panting blue Hedgehog as he continued to arrogantly mock him, “Is this a joke? How could something like you cause the destruction of our world?”

Unbeknownst to both Hedgehogs, a family set of large mechanical hands was appearing just behind Elise - Elise herself could only hear their mechanical whirring sounds far too late to react to them, just as Sonic responded to Silver:

“What...do you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter” Silver shook his head, “For the sake of the future, the Iblis Trigger must be destroyed!”

Just before Silver could attempt another direct hit to Sonic, both Hedgehogs were distracted by Elise’s loud scream as Eggman’s hovercraft yet again grabbed her. The last thing the princess could make out from the distance as she was Silver managing to make Sonic trip to his feet, and a pink colored figure heading towards them - though nothing beyond this point was audible for her beyond the sound of the hovercraft’s engines and Eggman’s laughter.

Such was the story of how she ended up in her current place of imprisonment - this large, metallic base situated near the snow-covered peak of Soleann’s White Mountain. She wasn’t sure if this base was built by Eggman or by her own people, though if it was the latter she had never heard a thing of it - not that her ‘regent’ ever seems to inform her of anything.

_Aunt ‘Mairie’..._

That name.

The regent of Soleanna, Lady Mairghread of House McLoch from the far-off land of Lochland. The closest surviving relative of Princess Elise due to her father having no siblings, necessitating the arrival of her maternal aunt to rule as regent for Elise’s minority following the man’s death. Arriving to Soleanna when Elise was only five years old, it was in truth Mairghread who held the true power in Soleanna for the past 10-11 years - and Elise doubted that her aunt would begin rescinding such power when her 16th birthday would come a mere two months from the current time.

Mairghread was also, legally, the heir to Soleanna’s throne should anything happen to Elise herself. Though the woman was well in her later 40’s, Soleanna’s succession laws were not gender-restricted like that of Lochland’s - and Mairghread was Elise’s oldest surviving relative. 

Elise did not like being the only remaining royal of Soleannan blood, as though it gave her popularity among the people she cared to protect so deeply it also placed a severe amount of stress on her - if she didn’t feel that fire inside of her whenever she was urged to cry, she likely would have had a mental breakdown years ago. Aunt ‘Mairie’ as she liked to be called, was no help in that department either.

Though she was only five years old at the time, Elise still remembered vividly the day that her aunt arrived in Soleanna. The current castle had not been built yet, as the decision as to what to do with the massive, practically imperial stone castle situated as the epicenter of the ‘Kingdom Valley’ hadn’t been quite made yet. Elise remembers waiting at the altar at the cliffside of the forest area, her five year old self protected by mustached prime minister and mayor Lord Regis alongside a small squad of at least seven royal guards. Not to mention the priests that were behind the lot of them. 

Still silently grieving for her father, let alone the mother who she lost even before that, Elise stood silently while awaiting for her aunt to arrive. It took a fair few hours for her to materialize in the distant horizon.

Escorted by not only at least seventeen Lochish musicians, complete with plaid kilts and bagpipes, but also by ten armed Lochish guardsmen and what appeared to be a young sheep woman dressed in a professional though now outdated business suit, was Lady Mairghread herself. Elise could back then see elements of her mother in the woman, or at least what she could remember her mother looked like. Her most prominent feature was her bountiful, naturally curly red hair that glistened in the sunlight like fire all those years ago. Elise had inherited the color, though not the curls. The arriving lady also had a thin, hourglass figure. Her hips swayed elegantly as she walked, and she always seemed to hold her head up high - as though she considered herself well above all others around her. She certainly dressed that same part, always wearing extravagant clothing in various rich and exocit colors such as tyrian purple, garnet red, or other specific shades of dark, emerald green. While the outfits she wore were no longer specifically remembered by Elise, she remembered her aunt usually liked to have long, almost whip-like drapes from her shoulders in addition to the addition of veils and golden jeweled crowns - even though she was neither a queen nor even the duchess. Though many in Soleanna would comment that she looked more like an _empress_ with the way she dressed.

Still, there was the matter of her first meeting her niece. Being five years old, Elise did not remember much of what was specifically said that day - except for one thing, the first thing she remembers ever being spoken to her by her aunt:

“Greetings, Elise” she spoke in her soft Lochish accent, almost as though she was trying to conceal her heritage to sound more ‘royal’, “I am your Aunt Mairghread, though I prefer you call me Mairie, so long as you do we’ll get along just _fine_.”

Elise remembered the look on her face. The smile she said while looking down at the five year old. Elise did not trust it. The look in her cold eyes, there was something about her aunt that sent shivers down Elise’s spine - as beautiful as the woman had been ten years ago, the fact that way she said ‘fine’ always struck Elise as strange. She also did not even give Elise the curtsey as traditional custom, even though the young girl gave her one out of respect. Instead, ‘Mairie’ simply stood though, with a lit cigarette in her hand - puffing it’s smoke in the direction of Lord Regis who coughed whenever she did so.

Their relationship did not get better over time.

Elise remembers various quotes from her ‘beloved’ and ‘respectable’ aunt, said to her throughout her youth at various times. One specific moment, from only a mere week after their first meeting, remains one of the most vivid conversations she had with her aunt, taking place directly in the old Soleanna throne room itself:

“But I don’t want a new castle!” the young princess had shouted, upset upon hearing Mairie’s idea of constructing a new castle, with the various priestesses around Elise desperately trying to keep the girl from crying as he continued, “The old one is just fine!”

Mairghread, still smoking in one hand, looked to her niece with a virtually remorseless look as she said directly at her:

“This castle is about as old and dead as your father, princess! And what’s dead, is dead. Everyone must learn to move on with life sooner or later, might as well start young!”

The priestesses around Elise all gasped, and stared at their duchess almost frightened at what would come next - while Mairie herself only continued puffing away at her cigarette, ever the chain smoker. 

It took every fiber in her being for the young five year old girl to not burst into tears at what had been said to her. Shaking with both rage and sadness, Elise actually clenched her fists and only muttered but one response, the only thing she could force herself to say that wouldn’t be seen as madly disrespect to her aunt:

“I’m not a princess, I’m a duchess.”

“Excuse me?” her aunt suddenly became angry, approaching Elise as though she intent to do bodily harm to the young child for what she had been told - though one of the hooded priestesses instinctively kneeled down in front of the duchess in silent effort to protect her if the worst did happen.

“I am a duchess” Elise bravely repeated, “I am not a princess!”

To do this day, she remembers precisely what her aunt said to her:

“We’ll see about that, ‘duchess’.”

Elise had madly underestimated the sheer pettiness of that woman. In addition to increasing the taxes on residents in the New City district and drastically cutting the funding for the police force in order to gain the funds to construct the new and current royal palace as well as the ferry system required to reach it, one of Mairie’s first major acts was a new constitution - one which she effectively forced a then freshly six year old Elise to sign, decreeing that the duchess was to drop her current title - demoting herself from a Grand Duchess to a mere sovereign Princess. Purely to win an argument with a child.

For years, Elise pondered why her aunt was able to stay in power for so long. Perhaps it was the fact that G.U.N. effectively protected Soleanna as a military force due to Soleanna having abandoned military pursuits in the modern era. Perhaps it was the fact that she was the heir to the throne. Perhaps it was the fact she surrounded herself with Solennans who only had their position because she herself had appointed them - such as Pietro the incumbent captain of the royal guard, to Mairie’s personal bodyguards Ernesto & Matteo, not to mention her new assistant Christina. Elise never found out what happened to the sheep woman, though there was that lavish feast thrown upon the grand opening of the current royal palace. ‘Lamb Chops’ and Haggis were served among the various native delicacies of Soleanna.

Aunt Mairie…

Elise thought to herself, a mix of emotions she struggled to keep down continuing to rumble within her at the mere thought of that name alone.

_Just like what’s happening now, everytime something good happens that makes me smile, she comes along and ruins it….always...._

_And….I never take action…._

Elise remembered but one incident in particular. A stroll by horse drawn carriage through the streets of Castle Town, protected and escorted by a small troop of Soleanna royal guards. This incident was fresh, as it had occurred just the previous year - and by then the years of unhealthy habits had taken their toll about Elise’s once beautiful aunt.

Her age, now rapidly approaching 50, had brought with it grey streaks within her hair which she dried desperately to cover up with dye - though the chemicals she was using proved to be slowly causing her hair to fall out, evident by the once luscious mane having lost plenty of its weight in the prior 10 years. Her voice, once easy to the ears, now had become more hoarse and witch-like, her smoking having done a number on her lungs.That’s not to mention the increasing amount of early wrinkles that were propping up on her face - and her various tax payer funded plastic surgeries to attempt in coring them, leaving her face an artificial mess.

Even still, she made Elise struggle to keep from coughing as she still ever had a cigarette within her hand. Her assistant and Soleanna royal press secretary, Christina De Paulis - an early-mid 30’s native Soleannan woman of average physique who usually wore a face mask due to the aforementioned smoke, was also in the carriage alongside Elise’s primary Lady-in-waiting Anna, who was known for usually wearing her large red skirt and pink blouse. She kept having to clean her glasses due to Mairie’s smoke getting in them - let alone having to stifle her need to cough.

_She snapped if we coughed in her presence...saying it was ‘un-lady like’...._

All in all, it was not a comfortable ride through the town.

At least, not until a faint sound of music had turned into a symphony very audible to Elise’s ears. The unmistakable sound of an accordion, being played by the jolliest of plump, mustached men who inhabited the city - singing in the Soleannan native tongue that made Elise actually defy her aunt’s usual orders:

“Stop the carriage!” the ‘princess exclaimed, and the drivers complied to her orders. Mairie was visibly shocked, but did not have time to respond as Elise opened the carriage window so that she could get a better look at the jolly middle-aged man as he sang a most beautiful, operatic song in the most jovial of tunes - a song that made her for once in her life feel as though she was something more than just a political pawn:

“ _Oh, beautiful Princess Elise_

_Princess Elise, Princess Elise_

_Oh, beautiful Princess Elise_

_Beautiful beautiful Princess Elise_

_All of my love and all of my dreams are only for you_

_Oh, beautiful Princess Elise_

_Beautiful beautiful Princess Elise”_

Elise was made happy by every word in the song, even making her softly sigh of happiness by the sheer fact the song was complimenting her. She was only ever called ‘beautiful’ by Anna and the other Ladies-in-Waiting or by the male guards around the palace, never by her aunt nor Christina.

However, there was the matter of the former, who quickly gained command of the situation with an angered yell at the carriage drivers:

“Drivers! Get a move on already!”

And with a rapid jolt of movement that almost sent Elise and Anna out of their seats, the carriage continued on its way - causing the accordion player’s music to begin growing ever fainter once more. Then, came the moment when Mairie directed her words directly at Elise - her mouth still fuming out smoke as though she was a dragon:

“What do you think you are doing? You do not stop a carriage ride through the streets to gawk at filthy commoners!”

“He’s not a filthy commoner, he’s a citizen of my city!” Elise argued back, “And he was singing a song about me, the least I could do was listen to it!”

Her aunt was amused by what she said - laughing until her hoarse coughing kicked in before making moves to strike down Elise’s moment of triumph with harsh words as she always did:

“Is that the best you can do? A lonely, fat, middle-aged accordion player who probably makes a single cent an hour? He’s lucky I don’t have some of my men snap his overweight neck and toss him into the canals like the garbage he is! A commoner’s a death for a lowly commoner, not worth the time of royals such as me, and I suppose you as well, Princess” with another huff of smoke she continued as Elise bowed her head and Anna glared with silent fury at her, “It would be a fitting end for street trash such as him. He’s not worth a noble death. No, a quick snap to show just how beneath the crown he truly is, how useless and meaningless as a person he is. Like the crap we dump into our toilets. Though, I suppose all things that are _dead_ become meaningless, is it not true?”

That final quote made Elise once more shake, reaching the border of finally snapping. Had it not been for Anna stepping in, she would have:

“Okay, that is enough!” the Lady-in-waiting exclaimed, silence overtaking the carriage as she got her words in, “Madame McLoch, you are only to be regent until _Duchess_ Elise is sixteen years of age, is this really the impression you want to leave when it is _you_ who must listen to _her_ for a change?”

Christina coughed nervously once the ensuing silence became near deafening.

There was nothing anyone of them could say, for once not even Mairie. The rest of the carriage ride that day had been silent, as was the ferry ride back to the castle. 

_Thank you, Anna_

_I hope you’re still alright without me there..._

Unfortunately for Elise, while she remained trapped within her cell at Eggman’s base she had no earthly way of knowing if her absence had any effect on Mairie’s way to torment Anna. Knowing the powers that Mairie had from her position as regent, she feared the worst. 

Still, there were others that she worried about as well.

Not that long ago - only about an hour or so from the present time - she was standing with Eggman inside of some control room, overlooking a window into some circular chamber of sorts - Eggman did not mention what the purpose of this room was until well after the then-upcoming events had taken place. It was honestly hard for her to make much sense of her surroundings - all of it was metallic - clean and reflective, though cold and lifeless. Everything else was only a series of wires, panels, monitors and other various machines. Though it took some time, Sonic, Tails and the red-furred, purple-eyed echidna with two spiked gloved fists known as Knuckles barged into the room - their footsteps clanging against the metallic floors. 

As the metallic door slammed shut behind them, Eggman spoke to the trio from the aforementioned control room far above them:

“You’re late.”

“Well” Knuckles snarked, “We had to deal with your little _pets_.”

“Where’s Elise?” Sonic was quick to demand, though as Eggman pulled Elise to be by his side, all the man said was an arrogant and somewhat callous set of words:

“My aren’t we impatient?”

“S-Sonic!” Elise exclaimed, honestly feeling uncomfortable as the evil man laid his hands upon her, though there wasn't much she could do about her situation at all. As the three on the ground below got into battle stances, Eggman was quick to remark:

“Ah-ah-ah, you’d better not move” he ‘warned’, before making demands of his own: “First, the chaos emerald.”

As Sonic held out the blue chaos emerald that Elise had tossed to him, Elise couldn’t help shake her head at what was happening. She could not believe that what had just started as a regular festival, had turned into all of this. Yet here it was, all unfolding before her eyes.

From a circular ‘dent’ in the floor a cylinder appeared - with Eggman gesturing for Sonic to place the emerald upon said object. Though Sonic as well as Tails and Knuckles paused, with Elise trapped behind a thick, heavily reinforced plane of glass there was little else for Sonic to do besides comply with what Eggman wanted. Placing the emerald upon the cylinder, in an instant a glass dome encased the emerald and the impromptu container slipped back into the ground - the emerald completely in Eggman’s clutches.

Eggman himself almost laughed, though for once managed to hold back on doing that - though he did push Elise away from himself as he extremely giddily slammed a single finger down on a button that evidently, he’d been wanting to press for some time.

In an instant, what had been thought to be a series of bright lights at the top of the room turned out to be part of some greater machine - as a field of bright pink energy emitted down from the ceiling and trapped Sonic, Tails and Knuckles inside of it. After the initial moments of confusion wore off, Knuckles attempted to punch the field - though was sent back via an electric shock. Eggman was quick to ‘explain’ to them:

“No no, it’s no use” he said as menacingly as his now excited self could manage, “It’s far too powerful for you to overcome. Now, all me to introduce to you my latest creation - this is the Solaris prototype.”

_Solaris, Prototype?_

Elise could only look to Eggman with a horrified gasp. She had no idea what a ‘Solaris Prototype’ meant, though something about those two words together made her mortified, as though a dark memory that she kept locked away deep enough so that even her present self couldn’t properly recount it. However, the events which were being remembered did not stop with that phrase, as Elise still strongly remembered the rest of what had happened as though it were mere seconds and not an hour prior:

With sinister, wicked laughter Eggman yet again pushed Elise away from himself, this time to step himself towards a small red liver. Frightened, Elise made sure to run to the opposite end of the room - though still all she had the power to do was watch as Eggman swiftly pulled the level and activated his so-called prototype:

“With this machine, I’ll be able to control the flow of time itself!”

Within an instant Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were lifted in the air by the force of the machine - and sent barreling towards the ceiling as they could do little else besides scream. Just as quickly did they vanish, along with the pink energy - all in a flash. Watching this Elise had her hands on the glass as she slid down to her knees, the hopelessness setting in as her only would-be saviors had just vanished as though they were nothing. 

Eggman, standing on the other side of the room, was quick to bluntly inform her of things which she wouldn’t know otherwise:

“Rest assured” he ‘comforted’ her while standing with his hands behind his back as he paced around the room behind her, “They’re not dead...yet. They’ve just been transported by my _glorious_ invention to another time. Who knows where they’ll end up? Could be in the distant past or far future. But my machine still requires some fine tuning.”

Elise just bowed her head at the cold metallic floor, trying her best to not cry over the three heroes she had just lost. She could hear all that Eggman said, though she was not actually paying attention to her. It wasn’t until he said his next set of words that she actually did so:

“In fact, what my machine needs in order to be complete is your power.”

_What? My...power? But, I have no powers...._

“My...power?”

“Yes” Eggman nodded as Elise looked towards him, slowly building up to his usual gloating self, “I can finally complete plans, now that I have acquired even just one of the chaos emeralds - and you, the duchess of soleanna. I may have lost the scepter of darkness, but nevertheless all I need at this point is you to revive the flames of disaster! And with its power alone I will be able to control everything, and rule the world!”

It was then that he looked down at the teenager, still processing all that was going on in her world. The last thing he said to her before ordering robots in to show her to her cell was a rather cold:

“So, you would be wise to remain on my ‘ _good_ ’ side.”

And so, events were finally brought to the present. After two ‘Egg Gunners’ escorted her to her cell, there she sat. Alone. Cold, with only the facilities air conditioning and vent systems providing sound besides her voice. She sat on the floor, thinking over all of these past events repeatedly in her head as she processed all that was happening.

Of all the things she thought over in her memories, one thing rang the most true of all. Those words Sonic said to her in that grassy field:

_Nothing starts, until you take action…_

However, there still was reality to consider:

_I just need to know what action I can take...._

There truly wasn’t much she could do, being as far as she was aware only a powerless human. Aside from the vents supplying her with the cold air surrounding herself, there wasn’t much in the way of anything she could use to escape - the door being one to lock from the outside.

She could only sigh - though while her breath was still visible due to the cold, it should be noted she did not shiver. As though her body was not at all affected by the cold air around her.

_There’s nothing I can do...._

_Sonic’s gone, and I can’t even really save myself from this room at all…._

_What am I supposed to do?_

That was when the vent far above her burst open, as though something had just punched or kicked it open. As the vent cover crashed to the floor out of seemingly nowhere, Elise gasped and stood to her feet. Though she soon heard the sound of footsteps clanging onto the floor from the vent, she saw nothing. That is, until before her eyes a figure materialized seemingly from thin air - a purple figure. Rather than fur, this anthropomorphic creature had scales that were purple in coloration - paired with golden eyes as well as a golden horn above two holes used for his ‘nose’. This male figure’s tail curled, and he had black-purple shoes with bandages around the top - in addition his gloves seemed to have the addition of armor once they reached his wrists. In addition to the black spikes along his back he did not have ‘quills’ per say, but his head mimicked the shape of three - one extending from the top, and two from the side.

The purple chameleon looked to Elise and gave her a respectful bow before addressing her in a manner akin to one of her courtiers:

“Princess Elise of Soleanna?”

Elise nodded, though she remained heavily confused by this sudden intrusion. She assumed he was here with heroic intentions, however.

“There is not much time to talk, but I’m here to rescue you from this base.”

“I know.”

“Then follow me before the alarms sound off, I will explain everything on the way.”

Elise nodded in response - though just as she approached Espio, the chameleon’s point revealed itself as the loud, blaring sounds of the base’s alarm systems went off. Not wasting any further time as robots were sure to be in the cell soon enough, Espio held out his hands in motion for Elise to jump onto his hands. Though she was nervous about doing so, she complied. Amazingly, Espio was capable of lifting her and then tossing her towards the opening of the vent - allowing the ‘princess’ to successfully climb into the vents. Espio himself followed in after, using his tongue to latch onto the ceiling and climbing back into the vents like any ordinary reptile would.

By the time the robots entered the cell door, there was no sign of either besides the opened vent and the removed cover.

While the vents certainly were cramped and forced Elise to sacrifice much of her bodily mobility, at the very least Espio was crawling in front of her, showing her the way. All around the two, they could hear the alarms from outside. However, either none of the robots were capable of entering the vents properly - or more likely, they weren’t aware that Elise and Espio were inside of them. Unless of course, some third option was occurring.

While Elise followed the purple creature through various, twists, turns and sharp corners with only the sounds of the alarms and their own movements surrounding them there was yet still the matter of some explanation for what was going on:

“Can I ask a question?” Elise spoke, “You said, you would explain on the way?”

“Yes ma’am” Espio replied, “Before they headed into the base, Knuckles informed me of what was going on - we agreed on an infiltration plan just in case things went wrong. Evidently, they did.”

“Yes” Elise said as she sadly lowered her head, though still followed the reptile, “They did. Eggman, he, transported them into the future.”

“The future?”

“Yes, that’s what he said...Sonic’s chaos emerald, let him do it.”

“Sonic’s chaos emerald?”

“Yes” Elise spoke with sadness in her tone yet she again restrained himself from tears, “He gave the chaos emerald to Eggman, letting him have one piece of the puzzle to his Solaris project.”

“Don’t worry” Espio remarked, turning to Elise while suddenly pulling out from the cuffs of his wrists something that shocked her - the blue chaos emerald. The same one that, as far as she knew, had been delivered to Eggman’s clutches at least an hour ago.

“Wha-what?”

“We discussed a plan of action before the three headed to base. The one delivered to Eggman was a fake chaos emerald developed by Tails - it had chaos energy stored into itself, but can not generate for itself. We had been hoping to trick Eggman with it….I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright” Elise sighed, “I’m hoping they’ll find a way back.”

“It’s not impossible, but we must keep moving. I was able to locate a hangar in the base where Eggman keeps various models of his airborne vehicles. We can acquire one and use it to travel to Soleanna faster, rather than traversing through the mountains.”

Elise nodded in response, agreeing that it certainly was a plan. She placed her complete trust in Espio - and it was well placed trust. It did not take long for Espio to trace his steps and successfully locate the hangar, and promptly took out one of his shurikens to break the vent open.

Espio jumped out first, though extended a hand out upwards and gently assisted Elise by catching her once she jumped down, before then letting her gently onto the floor. Looking around, it was swiftly confirmed that they were indeed within the hangar that Espio was talking about - it was a large, spacious room constructed like a warehouse. Frost covered parts of the floor due to it existing alongside a currently open bay door - revealing the snow-coated mountains and valleys outside as well as letting in the piercing cold wind inside. Yet Elise still felt none of the cold.

Most importantly though, were the levels of the hangar. Though it was only one room, there were multiple floors worth of walkways and scaffoldings joined together by elevator lifts - with each caring various versions of flying vehicles Eggman is known to use on a regular basis. Elise and Espio had in fact made landfall on the top level walkway.

With the alarms still blaring throughout the base, there was no time to waste in deciding one particular model. Instead, Espio immediately took Elise’s hand and led her to the nearest machine. It wasn’t the same one as Eggman’s current model - it lacked the hand extensions, was more old in design, and even had caution tape around the top of it’s hull.

However, just as the two stepped inside of the vehicle and Espio made moves to turn it on and begin piloting it, the robots of Eggman’s army entered the room in an effort to stop them.

Elise let out a scream as various Eggman robots began swarming the room - the white Gunners and red Stingers being joined now with brown ball-like robots that rolled in, until revealing they were more beetle-like robots that threw small bombs from their ‘horns’. They were also joined by blue-green rhino bots which moved via a single wheel, having a range of attacks ranging from an electric field as well as ‘bomb’s from their ‘flaps’.

Luckily, most of the rhino and beetle robots were crushed to pieces when Espio managed to get the vehicle to turn on and begin moving - the seventeen of them were largely crushed by it immediately. Though both Elise and Espio had to duck in order to avoid the gunfire from the Gunners.

Soon, after some tinkering with the buttons and levers, Espio found out how to speed up and properly steer the vehicle - thus the two were on their way out of the hangar doors before it could close.

A few squadrons of Egg Gunners were sent after them, though they were easily outrun by the flying speed of the vehicle. Once Espio and Elise peered their heads up and back at where the squadron was, they could see that all of the machines had disappeared behind the thick, freezing fog surrounding them.

Turning to Espio, Elise smiled of great relief:

“Espio…” she said, “Thank you, for saving me.”

“We’re not out of the woods yet, Miss Elise” Espio responded, “We still need to get you back to your castle, to safety.”

“I know…” Elise nodded.

“Luckily, this vehicle has a G.P.S. system, so we should be able to-”

“AH!”

Both of them were shocked when suddenly explosions shook the vehicle they were commandeering, in the form of missiles rapidly striking the hull - causing significant damage to the machine and it’s systems just as they were beginning to leave the fog of the snow-coated mountain peaks into the more temperate skies that made up the rest of Soleanna. 

Robots had managed to catch up with the two - ones that were similar to the Stingers, though we're yellow instead of red, and fired missiles far more rapidly. It wasn’t long before Espio and Elise’s vehicle began to smoke and short circuit in addition to rapidly begen descending towards the ground below, just as the New City came into view.

As Elise screamed and braced for impact with the ground, Espio dispatched the robots using his shurikens, though to actually destroy them it took some effort as their armor was thicker than the usual models. As in, Espio’s projectiles didn’t work at all.

“We’re going to have to jump!” Espio exclaimed to Elise as he saw that the machine was now either going to explode mid-air due to the yellow robots’ constant barrages, or otherwise crash into one of the high-rises of New City. Elise however, could hardly even hear his words:

“What?!”

“No time!”

Espio quickly took Elise into his arms and jumped from the cockpit - just moments before the original model egg mobile was destroyed by the yellow robots’ missiles. Elise held tightly onto the purple lizard and was sure that this was the end - though Espio instead landed on the rooftop of an apartment building, perfectly on his feet. As the debris of the destroyed vehicle rained down to the streets below, Espio knew the swarm of yellow-black robots was chasing after him and Elise and as such rushed for the door leading to the stairway inside of the building.

Of course, the robots’ missiles still proved to be strong enough to burst through the apartment windows and walls alike - soon resulted in Espio and Elise being joined by human and anthro citizens alike, screaming and running as the robots forced their way into their rooms in their search for Elise and Espio. Not to mention setting off the fire alarm and sprinkler system due to the fact the fires from the explosions caused by them lingered.

There was little time to talk. With absolute chaos breaking out throughout the building, Espio focused completely on running with Elise to the first floor and from there out onto the streets of Soleanna’s New City district. Most of the robot swarm eventually caused their own destruction due to the apartment building eventually collapsing due to the damage their missiles caused. Elise herself looked back with horror as she witnessed the building crumble in a cloud of dark grey dust. Her horror grew when at least seven surviving robots emerged from the dust and rubble to continue giving aerial chase to her and Espio.

There were Soleanna royal guardsmen, though all of them cowardly ran away along with the screaming civilians - none even seemed to consider checking if there were survivors from the building collapse.

_My people...._

Elise wanted to cry for any lives potentially lost in the collapse of that building, though for now there was no time to mourn.

Eventually, the seven robots that were chasing after Elise and Espio were defeated - though due to their thicker armor it was not by anything Espio himself had actually struck them with. Instead, it was through Espio outwitting them. He focused on traversing through the small alleyways that were too thin for the robots to force themselves through in bulk - due to the speeds at which they were flying they destroyed each other through crashing into one another or otherwise directly into the buildings of the city.

Only once the seventh one was finally destroyed did Espio stop, halting in the middle of a roundabout, right at the edge of when the New City actually started allowing the use of automobiles and began to become a metropolis better resembling what it becomes in the future. The two both panted as they recovered, having lost their breathes through all of the hectic insanity they had just been through.

“That should be the last of them” Espio commented as he recovered his stamina, “At least, for now.”

“I hope it is the last of them, period,” Elise remarked, to which Espio nodded. However, there was still work to be done for the two: namely taking Elise back to the castle. As such, Espio was quick to resume said objective:

“We still have to get you back to the palace.”

“If you take me to the docks by castle town, one of the guards should summon that allows us to go to and from the castle.”

“Why not use a bridge?”

“My aunt wanted to build the new castle on an island” Elise revealed to him, “She said it is a deterrent to any potential rebellion or revolution.”

“I see” Espio did not linger on the thought for very long, “Well in any in case, we must be on our way before more of Eggman’s army arrives.”

Elise nodded, and was more than willing to take Espio’s hand yet again as she was whisked away towards the doorway and tunnel to the Soleanna castle town, this time the run being rather uneventful. There were no further squads of robots sent after them, though there were many shocked and horrified pedestrians either running away from the mayhem or otherwise looking to see what precisely had gone so wrong.

Espio did not pay much mind to them however, his sole focus was getting Elise to safey.

Luckily, locating the ferry used to travel to and from the town to the castle was not hard to find. It was a simple run across at least two of the artificial islands of stone-and-mortar making up the castle town until it was visible parked by the city’s docks with a large cave system leading to the Wave Ocean beach area visible in the distance behind it.

Elise could make out multiple figures on the large pleasure boat as her and Espio approached it - the same large boat she had been on during the interrupted festival though now in the light of the sun rather than the moon; those figures were none other than her prematurely aged aunt Maighread, royal press secretary Christina who now had no mask over her youthful face, a squad of at least five Soleanna royal guards including the captain Pietro, the still living Lady-in-waiting Anna, and even Ernesto - ‘Ernie’ - and Matteo - ‘Matt’ - , currently the ministers of the treasury and labor, respectively.

As Elise and Espio neared the pleasure boat, there wasn’t much time to question why it was already in port. Mostly because Maighread immediately called gestured for Espio and Elise to stop in their tracks immediately before the former stepped his feet onto the boot itself, even saying to him:

“That is enough, lizard.”

“Ma’am, I’m a-”

“I don’t care” ‘Mairie’ took another puff from her cigarette, casting it’s smoke into the air, “Thank you for rescuing our princess and returning her safely. Now your services are no longer needed, so you may go.” - she even waved her hand, as if gesturing for Espio to leave her sight immediately.

Though he looked at the woman with severe distrust, Espio still turned to Elise and gave her a respectful bow, with Elise saying in a far more genuinely kind tone than her aunt:

“Thank you for rescuing me, Espio.”

“It was an honourable duty, Lady Elise.”

With those words having been exchanged, Elise joined her aunt and the others onboard the pleasure boat, while Espio walked away. Elise watched as soon enough, the castle town became further and further away with the boat’s team of rowers not having any time to waste in pulling out of port and heading on their way towards the grand, opulent royal palace that rested so many miles away on its own smaller island.

Though the first few moments of the boat ride was silent save for the ambience of the waters and the jovial accordion player’s music, Aunt ‘Mairie’ did turn from grimacing to smiling once said music was out of her personal earshot. 

“Finally…”

“Aunt Mairie?” Elise asked, though when her aunt was ‘forced’ to look up at her suddenly the woman seemed not as pleased:

“Not you, ‘dear’.”

“Hm…” Elise honestly did not want to speak with her aunt anyway. Instead, she was glad when Anna approached her with more genuine happiness - leaving her aunt and her entourage to discussing things amongst themselves:

“Miss Elise, I’m so glad you are okay!” Anna and Elise even exchanged a friendly hug with one another, “But, what happened to the blue hedgehog?”

“It’s a long story, I’d rather not talk about it…” that’s when Elise gasped: she looked at Anna’s hands and arms - noticing what appeared to be slowly healing but still fresh scars across them both. They resembled marks left by a whip or some similar instrument of punishment, and appeared to have been to Anna enough to actually inflict bleeding - though that had since dried by this point. Shocked to see this, Elise exclaimed to Anna, “What happened?!”

With a sigh and more saddened tone as she pulled her arm gently away from Elise, Anna explained:

“Madame McLoch did not take kindly to me being the one person in the country not afraid to stand up to her...she wanted to ‘discipline’ me once you were gone.”

Elise’s eyes widened with shock as she gazed upon what her aunt had done to one of the only friends she had. At first, she wanted to cry - as much as she knew she shouldn’t do such a thing. What stopped her from doing so was the fact that she remembered well those words Sonic had told her many hours ago:

_Nothing starts until you take action…._

Turning her sadness into a form of fiery rage, Elise instead marched away from Anna and towards Mairghread, Ernie, Matt and Christina. Christina had to gesture to the regent in order to get the older woman to turn to face her not only angry but now most brave niece. 

Not realizing, or not caring, why Elise was mad the aristocrat callously asked:

“Yes?”

“Aunt Mairghread-”

“Mair-”

“I don’t care!” Elise almost screamed with rage, enough fury in her voice that Mairghread’s own eyes widened and the entourage behind her almost stepped back in shock as Elise continued to vent her frustrations with her aunt, “Lady Mairghread of House McLoch, you have always been nothing but mean to me since the day we met when I was five! I’m the daughter of your sister, and I can see why my mother wanted to leave her homeland considering she had to put up with you all of her life! Not once have you ever even shown any sympathy or grief for her, you couldn’t even be bothered to attend her or my father’s funeral services! You might be my regent, you might be in charge of things while I am a minor and-or away, but that does not make you the Duchess of Soleanna! It gives you no right to threaten to have my people assasinated, and no right to torture my friends just because you want to feel more powerful than them! Once we return to the castle, I would be very happy if you rejoin the court of Lochland because you are no longer welcome in _my_ country, and no longer will be my legal heir!”

The rowers stopped.

Everyone onboard the boat but Elise herself had their eyes widened as much as they could.

Even the gulls seemed to stop their noises, leaving only the sound of the sea’s waves as ambience in the aftermath of Elise’s words.

That is, until laughter broke out.

Specifically, laughter from Mairghread, Christina, Ernesto and Matteo. The rowers and members of the royal guard remained silent. Elise remained angry, though she was about as confused as Anna when Mairghread and her cohorts broke out into their fit of cackling - once more until the latter inadvertently broke out into a small fit of hoarse coughing. Upon recovering, all the amused Mairghread could respond with was more callousness:

“And how, my dear, do you plan to accomplish this goal of yours?”

“I am the Duchess of Soleanna” Elise proudly responded with her head held high, “It is completely within my legal right to dismiss you as my regent, and I’m sure the people will support my decision to relieve you from your status as heir.”

“Oh really now?”

“Yes.”

“Well, my dear niece, there is one detail that you are forgetting”, Mairghread once more seemed to be holding back a witch-like fit of cackling as she sinisterly neared her niece. Elise remained fueled by fury in her voice as she replied:

“Like what?”

Suddenly, Elise felt a sting across her face as Mairghread’s aged, boney hand slapped her hard enough to send her to the floor as the aunt coldly hissed from her yellow teeth:

“I _own_ this country.”

“Miss Elise!” Anna was about to run to Elise’s side, though on Mairghread’s gesture Pietro and the policemen with him drew their weapons,standard issue handguns, out on her - forcing her to immediately stop and raise her hands in fear of getting gunned down by them. Elise managed to recover nonetheless, though wasn’t quite aware of the treachery as when she got up to her feet again she immediately directed her shouting to Pietro:

“Pietro! Guards!” she yelled, “Arrest this woman for assaulting the Duchess!”

Neither Pietro nor any of the guards made any response, only kept their guns aimed at Anna while their faces remained stone cold. Only Christina, Ernesto and Matteo laughed at how naive Elise proved to be. So naive she was that Mairghread had to explain it for her:

“Oh please, Elise. Your precious royal guards aren’t going to help you, they’re on _my_ payroll. Have been for quite a while, actually. I could order them to kill both you and your friend right now if I wanted. There would be no witnesses. Christina could easily come up with the excuse of a robot doing it, and there would be no suspicion. If it wasn’t for you being so beloved by the people, I would be the duchess already. Trust me.”

Though Elise seethed with fury, there was little she could do. An immunity from the cold she did have, though not immunity to gunfire. Closing her eyes and clenching her firsts before opening them at her heartless witch of an aunt, she hissed out:

“What are you going to do, then?”

“Oh, me?” Mairghread chuckled at the thought, “I’m not going to do anything my dear! Though, I can tell you who is.”

Before Elise could contemplate who this other person was, said person arrived on the scene in the form of their airborne vehicle descending right beside the boat with enough gunner robots to completely surround it. Complete with a sinister laughter now forever etched into Elise’s mind, Eggman only said to Elise:

“I hope you enjoyed your walk, princess, but we really must get going now” Eggman then smirked, “And to make sure you don’t get any ideas this time, allow me to introduce you to a bit of a ‘blue wind’ of my own.”

It was then that Elise, who had turned to face Eggman, was stunned by what she saw. Flying into the air from behind Eggman’s vehicle and landing on the deck of the robot right between Elise and Mairghread was a robot that was far unlike the others. It was almost like a robot version of Sonic - the exact same height, though with a three-spiked head akin to Espio. It’s noise was as pointed as the sharpest of knives, and the same could be said for it’s clawed hands. It’s body was a miniature jet engine to allow for maximum speed to keep up with Sonic himself, and it’s eyes were pitch black screens, with glowing red pupils. Elise, horrified by the arrival of this silent and uncanny machine only backed away from it in horror as Eggman introduced it:

“Meet Metal Sonic, dear princess” the roboticist proudly said, “He’ll be helping to make sure this incident doesn’t happen again. Now seriously, do come along, I haven’t got all day.”

Needless to say, Elise hesitated. Between her own policemen and now the robots aiming at her, she had not the faintest idea of what was going on. Even Mairghread was via her smile seemed to be suggesting Elise give herself up to Eggman. However, all Elise uttered was directed at her treacherous monster of an aunt:

“You're working with Eggman?”

“My dear are you dense” Mairghread almost rolled her eyes as she took another puff of her cigarette, “Yes, why do you think I got that emerald off of the black market for you? You didn’t seriously think that it was some ‘birthday present’, did you? There wasn’t any other way I was going to get the man to get into contact with me!”

“He’s trying to release the flames of disaster!”

“Oh please” Mairghread carelessly remarked, “You think I honestly believe any of this country’s ridiculous superstitions? Perhaps I should have told you when I put the ‘scepter of darkness’ up for sale on the black market, would have saved you the trouble of having to figure all of this out I suppose.”

_You….you bitch…._

Elise had plenty that she wanted to say, though Eggman was quick to interject:

“I hate to get in between family discussions, though I have quite the busy schedule - so if you don’t mind…”

“I apologize for your wait, Doctor” Mairghread responded, before turning to her niece and pointing towards Eggman and his vehicle, “I suggest you take your leave, my niece. Don’t make this more difficult for yourself than it has to be.”

Elise did not budge however, however two of the Egg Gunners did land immediately behind her - completely preventing Anna from approaching as well as Elise from even considering escape. With that set in place, she bowed her head in defeat. She could hear Ernesto, Christina and Matteo laughing at her misfortune in hushed whispers and murmurs. 

With Elise bowing her head in surrender, Eggman then directed his attention to Mairghread herself:

“Oh, and Madame McLoch” he said in the most cordial of tones, “There is a matter I need to discuss with you.”

“Yes, Doctor Eggman?” 

“Well” Eggman explains, “I would like a refund of sorts, for the scepter of darkness. I won’t go into too much detail but will say that it appears G.U.N. has become more involved in my plans than I was anticipating. Whatever you’ve been doing to stop them from interfering with my capturing of Elise, it does not appear to be full-proof.”

“Excuse me?”

“You do realize that my glorious creations don’t pay for their own production, do you not?” Eggman snarked, “Since I’ve lost the scepter of darkness to G.U.N. I would greatly appreciate assurance that I will get my money back, if you please.”

There was yet again a moment of silence throughout the scene as everyone awaited for the regent’s answer. Even Christina nervously walked towards her mistress and spoke in a soft, somewhat frightened tone:

“Miss Mairg-”

But Mairghread put out a hand in order to swiftly silence her, before turning to the guards and saying:

“It appears our deal with Eggman is now canceled” she said to the policemen, “Dispose of these robots immediately, and I don’t care if you hit the princess or not.”

The police, even Pietro, for once broke from their cold, tense looks and now seemed more frightened than anything else. They were not idiots. They were well aware that these robots would not be harmed by their pathetic handgun bullets - they looked at the regent as though she was completely demented for even suggesting it. Ernesto and Matteo though, were ever the loyalists and shouted at the guards once it was apparent that they were not responding:

“You heard the regent!” Ernesto exclaimed, “Fire, you idiots!”

“Take them out now!” Matteo yelled, “Your future duchess commands it!”

“That is my line, Matt!” Mairghread growled, before turning to the arrogantly smirking Eggman and continuing to bark like an enraged dog, “How dare you! You do not get to make demands of _me_!”

“It appears, dear Madame McLoch, that your guards would agree with me that I _can_.”

“No you can not!” Mairghread roared as she directed her fury at Eggman - her damaged voice making it sound even more like one, “I am Lady Mairghread of the House of McLoch! Princess of Lochland! Future Duchess of Soleanna! You are nothing more than a mad scientist who still plays with childish toys! My money has better uses than catering to you and your frivolous, insipid plans! Do you know how much plastic surgery costs? Or how about bribing those in charge of G.U.N. to say out of _my_ plans? The only reason I wanted you was to get my niece out of the picture, but now I am in the perfect position to do without you-AGH!”

In an instant, all on the boat were shocked. In her ranting against Eggman, Mairghread had not paid attention to Metal Sonic. The robot had grown quite tired of her voice and levitated himself in the air, within an instant having grabbed her by the neck - which he proceeded to snap and fracture within a matter of minutes. The sound of her bones cracking could be heard by all on the deck. After her dead muscles relaxed and her cigarette dropped from her hands, Metal Sonic discarded Mairghread’s corpse by tossing it onto the floor of the deck as though she were nothing but trash - meaningless, worthless trash. 

Eggman was the only one not horrified to witness the power behind Soleanna’s throne be discarded like an everyday piece of garbage - in fact he was quite elated by it:

“Good idea, Metal!” he cheered, before turning to the rest of the robots surrounding the boat, “The rest of you, follow his example! Though do _not_ harm the duchess!”

Right before the carnage began, Ernesto and Matteo callously screamed at Pietro and the police virtually in unison:

“Hurry!”

“Kill the girl before he kills us all!” Ernesto screamed in terror.

“She’s useless to him dead!” Matteo added. 

Their lack of humanity was rewarded with them being among the first to perish once the Egg Gunners began firing their machine gun bullets at all on the deck - both ‘Ernie’ and ‘Matt’ dying almost immediately to bullets in the head, meeting a similar fate to Mairghread in dying as though their lives held no significance whatsoever.

They were followed by captain Pietro and the rest of the guardsmen onboard soon after. Their handgun bullets were of no effect and merely bounced off the robots, and they themselves along with all of the boat rowers were gunned down in a blood-soaked massacre as bullets promptly descended into their bodies.

Elise could only drop to her knees, holding her head as she hoped with all heart that she would not be among the growing number of corpses aboard the boat. 

The two Egg Gunners behind her, following their creator’s orders, turned their attention to Anna. Backing away in fear, Anna was lucky as though bullets did graze the edges of her arms and legs the shock of it was enough to send her off the side of the boat and into the waters below. She lost her glasses as she screamed though none of her injuries were fatal by any means.

The same could not be said however, for Christina. While the Egg Gunners were mowing down Ernie, Matt and the guardsmen she screamed at the top of her lungs and ran straight for Elise. Slipping right past a seemingly idle Metal Sonic, she managed to take advantage of the two robots’ distraction with Anna and grab hold of Elise:

“Ah!” Elise shrieked as suddenly Christina held her as one would a hostage - the once usually quiet assistant telling her in a panicked tone:

“Shut up you fucking bitch! I’m not dying because of you!”

However, she was quite wrong. Just like her mistress, she far too late realized that Metal Sonic’s position had changed. Christina did not even have time to process that the robot was behind her until she felt a sudden, piercing sting at her waistline.

It did not last long, though it did completely eliminate her ability to speak or even move.

Within moments both her top half and bottom half fell to the ground - her body having been successfully bisected by a single slash of Metal Sonic’s knife-like claws. Well before the Egg Gunners had the time to turn around to kill her themselves, for that matter. 

_My god…_

Elise could only express horrified awe at how the most powerful, yet evil, people in all of Soleanna had been taken down in mere seconds by Eggman and his machines. Christina, Ernie, Matt, Pietro and Mairghread all lay dead on the deck of the boat as though they were completely worthless - the power they once held gone about as fast as their lives. Not even Eggman wasted time dwelling on their downfall:

“Excellent work my robots! Now, let’s take our friend here back to the Egg Carrier, this vacation has gone on quite long enough!”

_Anna…_

Elise bowed her head in surrender as Metal Sonic lifted her with his cold, metallic hands and saw to it that she was placed in the cockpit with Eggman. The robot along with the others in the squadron wasted no time in flying away at that point, Elise only looking down at her feet during yet another ride as Eggman’s captive.

She could only hope that Sonic truly would find a way back to the present time in order to rescue her.

While Elise was happy when she looked over to the side of the vehicle as it ascended and left the scene of the slaughter and saw a visual of Anna swimming back to Soleanna’s docks - that did not change the fact that Sonic was still sent through time.

That did not change the fact she yet again felt hopeless.

_Sonic…_

_I hope Espio was right…._


	7. Flame Core

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, Shadow and Rouge meet up with Sonic, Tails & Knuckles in the volcanic canyon outside of the ruined city. Still stuck 200 years in the future, the six have to work together to find some way back to the present. All the while, they face an onslaught of demonic forces that form the predominant obstacle to their quest - culminating in them facing off with the fated destroyers of the world themselves. 
> 
> Nothing could have possibily prepared the Flash for the mental trauma he was about to be faced with.

_I still don’t know if any of this is really happening…_

_Part of me thinks that any second now, I’ll wake up at my desk back at the station, finding out that the whole time travel thing was just a really super long dream and the original timeline never left at all…_

_However, I know that if that was the case, I’d have definitely woken up by now…_

Barry still was not fully latched to the fact that all that was happening around him was actually real. Every second felt like an intense fever dream of sorts - and the brief migraines and flashing purple vision did not help either. Nor did the fact that his lungs were now receiving a constant influx of smoke and ash from the heated apocalyptic air around him - forcing various coughs out of him. He received a look from Shadow as he did, silently telling him to just keep his mouth closed.

Barry was sure to obey the suggestion.

The air only got worse the farther Barry, Shadow and Rouge were from the remains of the ‘future’ city. Miles away were the ruins of what once had been a bustling metropolis, and close where dark, blackened mountain ranges accompanied by volcanoes which seemed to be in a constant state of eruption, their lava flows forming entire river systems, their smoke replacing the clouds in the sky, and their flaming rocks taking the place of rain. The ground, for it’s part, matched the dark, blackened skies. Patches of dead grass were present, though rare. In the two centuries since the destruction of the world most of what had once been lush grass not only died, but was then stained and replaced by the ash and flaming rock raining down upon it, turning virtually all of the ground to dry, blackened rock and volcanic earth. As Barry traveled with Shadow and Rouge into this bleak realm, he only had one description for all of it:

_Are we still on earth?_

_Or are we in Hell…_

The only break from the otherwise dark, dismal lights of the blackened sky and air came from the banks of the lava streams which illuminated the immediate area with auras of heated red light. Even so though, it did not help Barry with telling the time, though considering things were still visible enough to traverse the landscape he assumed that it was at the very least late afternoon.

From what Barry could tell, both Shadow and Rouge were focused on whatever destination they were heading towards, and with how fast the three were going there was no telling how far they had already traveled from the city.

Within a matter of minutes however, their destination was reached.

Overlooking a long canyon itself overlooked by one of the larger volcanoes, their destination was a small rocky, ash-stained cliffside with only two notable pieces of vegetation in the area - specifically two dead, dried out trees that remained standing in a permanent state of silent death. As Barry, Shadow and Rouge stopped the human man could only continue to ponder if this truly was an earthly realm or some far more demonic dimension.

At the very least, the lava that supplied most of the lighting was a distance from the steep cliff that they were on top of - making their bodies less heated by the reddened molten rock.

Waiting for the three was another trio who had already arrived before them - Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Barry recognized the green-eyed blue hedgehog and the blue-eyed two-tailed fox of orange-yellow fur, though to him the purple-eyed red echidna with the almost lego-like silver plate on his shoes and the white crescent mark on his chest was a brand new sight.

_I’m assuming this is that Knuckles guy they mentioned before…._

_At the very least, I’m not surprised by this anymore...maybe the memories are finally kicking in, though I’m not losing the old ones...._

In a fitting fashion, it was Sonic who spoke first as Barry, Shadow and Rouge approached him, Knuckles and Tails:

“Wow” he snarked, “You guys sure showed up fashionably late. What took so long?”

“Oh, us?” Rouge remarked, “We just had a bit of a detour, nothing major though.”

It was then that attention went over to Barry, who was in many more ways than one the odd one out of the group. Even though he was in his complete Flash costume, the first thing out of Tails’ mouth once he looked the Flash up and down was nothing else but:

“Barry?”

“Huh?” Barry was shocked to hear that, not used to people just figuring out secret identities like that, still, he had to address it: “What, what are you talking about?”

“Oh, now I see it!” Sonic exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, “You’re that guy me and Tails ran into back in Soleanna! Surprised to see you here! I’m assuming you got sent to this future with the rest of us, huh?”

“Firstly, yeah, I did” Barry answered, “Secondly, how’d you figure out who I was?”

“Hahaha” Tails childishly laughed, “It’ll take more than to fool me! Got an I.Q. of 300!”

“Yep!” Sonic exclaimed, “Tails is quite the child prodigy!” - Tails continued to chuckle as Sonic ruffled the top of his head, with smiles on both their faces. It reminded Barry of himself and his nephews, though in a manner which made him softly smile.

“Ahem” with that sound, the sound of Knuckles clearing his throat, everyone’s attention was driven over to him instead: “Guys, I think we can save this chat for later, in favor of ya know, getting back to where we came from?”

“Luckily” Rouge interjected, “We found just the thing to help us do that!”

It was then that Sonic, Tails and Knuckles saw in Shadow’s hands the green chaos emerald achieved from the city prior to encountering Barry. Tails himself was pleasantly surprised, and exclaimed appropriately:

“You guys found a chaos emerald!”

“Of course we did” Rouge said as she snarked, “I’m a real treasure hunter, after all” and it was with a smirk that she added, “unlike a certain echidna I know.”

Hearing that, Knuckles quickly stormed towards the gloating bat - Shadow silently following him with his eyes with arms folding him. All Knuckles did was say a slightly angered:

“What?”, before he stormed back to where he was after a huff, with Shadow’s eyes still silently following him. Rouge just kept the smirk on her face. With that small exchange over as quickly as it started, Shadow was quick to resume discussion of business and asked Sonic, Tails and Knuckles but a simple question:

“Have you guys discovered anything?”

“Yeah, actually” Tails explained with a nod of his head, “We discovered a lab in the city, and on one of the computers there I was able to discover a signal indicating there was a chaos emerald around here, possibly in that huge volcano over there!”

Rouge, surprised at the nation of traversing the vast, volcanic canyon before them, could only complain in surprise at the notion:

“You mean we have to go through there?”

Knuckles, with Shadow’s eyes following him, yet again turned and faced Rouge directly as she said in a confrontational tone:

“If you don’t like it, you can stay here.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

Once Knuckles huffed back to his place, that was when Barry finally had enough of observing and interjected his own words into the conversation as he was still having quite the struggle with processing all of the information his brain was receiving:

“Okay, okay, can someone just explain to me ho-”

“No time!” Shadow exclaimed, marching forward to be ahead of the others as he interrupted Barry’s words, “Let’s move!”

With Shadow, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge rushing on into the volcanic, hellish canyon it was Barry who found himself left to shrug. He still had barely any idea of what was going on or what it was that needed to be done, but he followed his new allies regardless - at the very least they all seemed to be heroes like himself. Thankfully, he caught up to them all within a matter of seconds - a speed at which even Sonic was impressed:

“Wow Barry!” the blue hedgehog exclaimed as he and the blonde were virtually side by side rushing forward into the dark landscape, “You’re really fast! Almost as fast as me!”

“Heh” Barry smirked, “Call me the Flash, and we’ll be seeing about that ‘almost’ part.”

“So we shall”, Sonic was smirking in precisely the same way.

Sonic, Shadow and the Flash naturally led the charge into the canyon, finding themselves speeding down what appeared to be a flat highway of black earth with the heated air flowing past them as during any regular high speed run. There were brief appearances by what appeared to be lizard beasts made out of the molten rock and flames - though their entire forms were easily dispersed by being rammed by either of them ramming into the beasts at such high velocities of sheer speed.

Barry could hardly believe the geography of the place: one second he and the two hedgehogs were careening down a long, winding path faster than a speeding sports car. The next that same path turned into a loop made of darkened earth, before their speed sent them into the air to briefly overlook the lands before landing onto yet another winding pathway. All the while avoiding seemingly random pillars of fire that would sprout from the ground like geysers, requiring nigh perfect timing in order to avoid being scorched.

_This is hellish, but exhilarating_

_Though, hopefully I don’t fall into the lava…_

He couldn’t have thought that at a better time. Within moments it was apparent that the roads of rock they were racing down were descending, and soon they were mere feet if not inches away from a stream of the red molten rock that fed directly into a small lake of it complete with spires and even platforms of rock emerging from the top of it.

Luckily, all of this proved surprisingly easy to traverse with a good usage of momentum and acrobatics - though Barry could still feel sweat pouring from his body due to his proximity to the heat. He only hoped his suit would not glue itself to his skin.

Jumping from rock spire to rock spire and from platform to platform - making quick work of any lizard or ‘bat’ lava monster that manifested in their way, the group quickly found a steep wall that headed to a plateau, and headed there. The flat plateau was not very large, but did overlook a sea of lava as well as feature a closed off cave connection to it. The only trouble was the geysers of fire and the emergence of various bat and lizard demons as soon as their feet touched the ground.

_What are these things…_

The lizard and bat-like beasts were joined by other fiery faces however - large worm-like beasts that casme up from the ground with large flaming mouths that almost looked like two pairs of hooked tweezers, and one large, golem like beast that was humanoid in stance but incredibly large - about as large as that Doomsday beast had been. Though it was not as threatening since it’s head was but a pure circle of bright, heated lava.

Still, seeing it triggered a small bout of Barry’s headaches as well as purple vision. Though he avoided an outright hallucination, for a few brief moments the beast flashed into a screeching, growling paradoom while Barry himself grabbed his head and hissed due to the migraine.

This was not unnoticed by Shadow, who looked at the struggling Barry curiously while he was destroying one of the lizard beasts with a single chaos spear - alongside all of the others who also managed to take care of the monsters with relative ease. Tails, Knuckles and Rouge all had just as much ease defeating them as Sonic and Shadow: Knuckles’ punches, Tails’ tail whips, and even Rouge’s martial arts kicks all managed to disperse the lava monsters in but a few hits - reducing them to nothing as though they hadn’t even existed at all.

The only exception was the golem-like beast, which had enough blackened, heated rock to serve as armor that it seemed virtually impenetrable. It managed to disperse Shadow, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge from getting too close to it by tossing explosive fireballs at them - evidently trying to lead them towards the geysers and their regular blasts of fire.

It did not take any account of Barry, however.

Once Barry recovered from the headache, he was quick to notice the predicament that the others were in - and just as quickly he knew what to do. It was actually rather simple really, a mad dash for the mountainous ‘wall’ behind it followed by a jump off allowed Barry to punch the creature’s ‘eye’ with enough sheer momentum that it dispersed to nothing within a matter of seconds. Barry landed back to the ground as the cave behind them opened up, revealing a short caven illuminated by glowing purple gemstones as it led to another section of the canyon.

“Way to go, Flash!” Sonic congratulated. Barry responded with a smirk and a nod of his head, before the group pressed on to the rest of the canyon.

_Hopefully we get back to the wonderful world of air conditioning soon enough._

The rest of the canyon proved rather easy to traverse through once all of the demons within it were proven to be rather physically weak. They continued emerging to attack the group, though just as quickly they were reduced to nothing once more. 

The next major section of their journey was as beautiful as it was haunting: a deep waterfall made of lava, dropping down into a small lake miles beneath their feet, though platforms of stone stuck out from the lava flow along with other platforms and even weakened ‘bridges’ of rock to help them get over to the waterfall. Tails, Rouge and Knuckles easily flew or glided across the chasm, though the three speedsters had to use the platforms.

The entire time, it couldn’t be stated enough how both haunting and gorgeous seeing such a large waterfall of lava was. With everything else around it being increasingly darkened by just how bleak this future world was, it served as both the largest source of light as well as a reminder of the doom that occurred many years before.

It also of course, served as a threat due to the heat it gave off. The heroes had no choice but to be up close and personal with it’s radiating warmth, making many of them feel as though they were being slowly cooked alive. Having to keep moving at a fast pace did not help.

Nor did the fact that the bridges they tried to cross over began to collapse the moment they were stepped on. Had Sonic, Shadow and the Flash not been speedsters they would have fallen directly into the lake of lava beneath them. They would not have been able to properly jump up the ‘lavafall’ via the platforms jutting out from it, and from there navigate the small platforms being sent down it’s current while land bridges turned red by it’s heated light overlooked them from above, forming a pseudo cave-like area.

Beyond that, they reached another plateau where they had to face off with another small team of fire beasts before proceeding. There was little time paid to them, as all of the monsters were virtually now incapable of putting up any serious resistance to the team’s attacks. Within a matter of seconds they were already rushing through a second short cave towards what would be their final segment of the outside volcanic canyons:

With the massive canyon that served as their destination now looming over them in plain view of their eyes, they now only had to avoid a steep drop into the wide volcanic river that rested miles beneath them. They had various bridges, platforms and spires of volcanic rock to help them from doing just that. Due to them having to avoid flaming chunks of molten rock raining down onto them like the polar opposite of a rough hail storm in addition to not wanting to breathe in any toxic fumes, there was not much talking between them at this stage. Though there remained easy defeatings of the various fire-based demons that sprung out to attack them.

Before they even knew it, they were all blazing through the air towards the massive volcano before them - on a direct collision course with whatever existed on the inside of it.

As they approached it, it dawned on them all just how large it was. It was the size of yellowstone's grand caldera from what Barry could see, except in the shape of a traditional volcano. Though he gulped as he descended towards it alongside his newfound allies, he had hoped that soon it would all be alright.

That would prove to take quite a while, however.

The descent into the massive volcano was hectic for all of them as they dropped down for what had to be miles upon miles of heated, dark air. They held their mouths shut so as to not take in any of the toxic fumes from the stacks of smoke emitting from the large triangular mountain - though their eyes were forced to struggle.

The stacks of fumes soon were behind them though, only to be replaced by another, arguably more pressing threat. Soon surrounded on all sides by circular walls of rock, the large team was left at the mercy of fire geysers lining the side of the chasm they were falling down. Once he realized what was coming, Shadow was sure to exclaim to the others:

“Watch for the fire!”

“Here it comes!” Knuckles’ own exclamation came with him and Rouge having to latch themselves onto the wall around them to steer clear of at least four different blasts of fire that came from the wall-perched geysers. They managed to just barely dodge getting burned alive by the vicious streams. Thankfully, so did the others. Tails managed to grab hold of Sonic, and lifted him to a spot not being occupied by the streams of flame. Shadow managed to grab hold of one of Rouge’s ankles, and for good measure sank one of his hands deep within the walls of rock so that neither of them would fall. Barry had to push himself to the wall and with his sheer momentum sank both his hands and his feet into the wall.

“Heh” Sonic chuckled, “This place sure doesn’t hold back!”

“You can say that again.” Barry muttered in response, agreeing with Sonic’s cocky statement. The conversation was then taken over by Tails:

“According to the signal I found, the chaos emerald is in the deeper regions of this volcano, so we’re really only half way there now!”

“Assuming we don’t get cooked alive down here” Knuckles added in, there was little argument to his statement - since there wasn’t much of one to make. Thankfully though, the streams of flame receded and allowed the group to press on for the remainder of the chasm - there were other geysers on the way down though thanks to their timing all of them to the groups’ relief only went off after they had already passed by.

Landing on a large circular platform surrounded by a small stream of lava, the six looked around and saw that the cave immediately in front of them was their only way of continued travelling, and so proceeded to rush down the winding pathway connected to their landing sight. At the very least, the cave was well illuminated by the red-yellow-orange magma beneath them - turning all of the cave walls, stalagmites, stalactites and ceiling alike into a red color just like itself.

The pathway did not last long, courtesy of the six’s sheer speed. Soon enough of the winding path led them to a much larger chamber of the volcano, one where the light was not nearly as strong as it was in the previous ‘hallway’ they had just gotten out of.

Almost immediately did they all find themselves struggling to see, the rock pathways they stood on becoming even darker, as did the lava and magma all around them - turning a much darker shade of red in conjunction with the rest of the room. They could tell that the room increased in height on one side due to the small lavafall before them, but they could no longer properly make out what path was safest to go down due to the sudden shift in lighting.

However, Sonic took quick notice of mysterious, levitating purple spheres of rock that were present. Without much in the way of hesitation, he impulsively curled into his ball state and homed in on them - his striking of one causing it to light up and provide a source of visibility for himself and the rest of the group in the immediate area.

“If we just hit these purple ball things, we should be able to find our way through this chamber!” Sonic exclaimed to the rest of the group, though Shadow was quick to remark back:

“Thank you for stating the obvious.”

“Heh” Sonic snarked back, “You’re welcome too, Shadow.”

“Hmph.”

The group quickly continued their journey through the cavernous chamber, with each of them making sure to make impact with any purple spherical rock they found levitating in the air once they were outside inside of any generated source of light.

With all of their speed combined, it was only a matter of seconds before they all found themselves out of that dimly lit chamber and in a section of the volcano’s insides, one where at the very least proper visibility was a thing. Yet again were they hit with a sight that was haunting, yet at the same time strangely beautiful for their eyes to behold:

They were inside a tall, spacious, hallway-esque cavern, standing on yet another winding pathway of blackened rock, surrounded on virtually all sides by scorching hot, red, glowing and flowing magma. Yet, there was a strange beauty to the fact that out of many large holes within the cavernous walls, flowed large and seemingly endless streams of magma into the one beneath and around their only ‘road’. Rather than the sounds of streaming water, was the sound bubbling molten rock and the fire that would occasionally spit out from it. Their flows actually fed into a large, incredibly steep lavafall situated behind them, though they did not venture to see what was beyond _that_. As horrifying as it was, it was just as mystifying in it’s own hellish way. Rouge in particular made note of this:

“You know, as horrifying as this place is, some of these sights actually are strangely beautiful too.”

“Yes” Shadow admitted, looking to Rouge with a blank yet agreeing expression, “In a way, they are….but let’s keep moving.”

As the group pressed on down the winding path through the boiling hot cave, all Barry could focus on was thinking ever fastly to himself:

_She’s not wrong, this place is kind of beautiful…_

_In the same kind of way Hell is, I imagine, but still...._

_Would much prefer a honeymoon in Niagara Falls to a honeymoon in whatever ‘Falls’ these are called, though, not gonna lie._

_Maybe Robin and Raven would prefer this place, though. Maybe._

The winding path ultimately did not last long with how fast the group moved through it - and neither did their ability to properly see where they were headed. Soon enough the group found themselves in yet another chamber that was incredibly poorly lit - quickly forcing their vision to dim down along with it. The difference this time however was that the chamber had winding pathways of its own, ascending up the chamber’s lavafall and beyond - along with various platforms and miniature plateaus situated around it at various heights.

There were however two glaring differences between this darkened chamber and the previous one they had been in: one was that there were no levitating pieces of rock, but instead more widely spread out purple-ish orbs of light that were currently turned ‘off’ from what it seemed. Second, was that the fire-and-rock demons were emerging in full force when it came to this chamber with all currently revealed types of them appearing as though they were adamant about preventing the six from progressing any further inside of the volcano.

It was evident to all of the six that the way to press on likely had to do with those spread out orbs, though with squadrons of fire demons guarding each one in addition to being present along the pathway itself it was evident the group would not be able to deal with this chamber as a single cohesive unit, as such Rouge did not waste much time in coming up with a simple solution for their problem:

“Looks like me and the echidna are gonna have to check out those light orbs while the rest of you guys handle these monsters down here!”

Pounding his fists together, Knuckles remarked:

“Works for me!”

“Just be careful” Shadow spoke to Rouge, “Don’t fall into the lava.”

“Shadow” Rouge winked, “You don’t need to worry about me so much!”

“Hmph.”

“Alright, that’s enough talkin’ for the moment!” Sonic exclaimed, his own loud-mouth self smirking up a storm, “Let’s kick some monster butt!”

“You’re speaking my language!” - Knuckles couldn’t help but add that. 

With those things all having been said, the group did as Rouge had suggested - herself and Knuckles took to the air and used the parts of rock that weren’t too overly heated or fading slowly into flowing lava in order to climb to greater heights in order to more easily reach the orbs while the remaining four continued on the path and engaged in battle with the monsters before them.

Of course, small groups still attacked Knuckles and Rouge as well. However, they yet again did not prove to be much of a threat.

The lizard beasts proved that they could breathe fire, but being stationary while they did so left them open to drop kicks from Rouge or near kryptonian-strength punches on the side of their heads from Knuckles. They were dispersed to nothing without burning their foes at all. The bat-like creatures generated and dropped fireballs like miniature bombs, though with Rouge’s skill at aerial maneuvers, Tails’ own similar abilities, and Sonic & Shadow’s jumping height they were just as easily reduced to a non-entity within moments.

The large, worm-like beasts along with the tall and armored golem-like ones were slightly more of a threat, though the worms could only take a bit more punishment before fading into oblivion while the golems having their weak point exposed usually only got one strike in before said weak spot was exploited by any one of the six and they were promptly defeated. A well placed chaos spear or even just an aerial punch or kick from Shadow made short work of them - let alone one from Knuckles or Rouge.

Getting beyond this chamber was little more than a matter of Knuckles and Rouge smacking the levitating orbs on either side of the chamber - getting them to light up with bright and almost blinding light, while the others slew the monsters down below with their various powers.

At times, entire circles of the worm-like beasts would emerge, only to be taken down by a stream of kicks to the head from Rouge from the air. Knuckles with a few combined punches made short-work of one ambitious golem demon that emerged in front of him at one point.

The lizard demons tried to burn the others with their fire breath, though more often than not they were taken out from behind as quickly as they started their attack. Lunging at the heroes proved even more fatal for them.

_After what we went through with those Paradooms… -_ Barry thought - _This is practically therapy!_

Before long, all of the orbs were glowing brightly thanks to Knuckles and Rouge, and equally so all of the monsters that had emerged were reduced to nothing.With those two objectives being accomplished, the six saw that their way to the next section of the volcano had opened up - like a sliding door, a portion of the cavern had sunk itself into the ground below to expose the way to them. Without any hesitation, the six continued on as a group of one.

What they found once they exited the cavern was the massive, spacious core of the volcano, complete with but one circular platform for them to stay on while a massive sea of lava virtually surrounded them. There were pathways leading other caverns within the volcano, though the sheer size of this chamber pointed to this being where the entire system led to. Behind them was not only the cave they had just left, but also the jagged, rugged volcanic rock that encompassed the outer walls of the chamber itself. 

Far above them was the hole, the ‘eye’ of the volcano, with large towers of billowing smoke and sparks of fire floating up into and out of it into the dark world on the outside. 

Most important of all though, was the glowing diamond-cut gemstone levitating in the air before them - spotted just as they looked upwards towards the hole far above them. It’s color and glow gave off either a turquoise or cyan coloration, depending on which way one looked at it. Naturally, it was Rouge who with a smirk was the first to take notice of the emerald:

“There’s the chaos emerald you guys were talking about earlier!” she said as she took off into the air, flying towards it, saying to it and herself in an almost greedy fashion: “Come to mama!”

However, it was not long before Shadow unfolded his arms as the realization that this was far too easy dawned on him. He quickly shouted to Rouge as loud as he possibly could:

“DON’T TOUCH IT!”

Luckily, Rouge managed to fly back onto the platform with a gasp as well as a flip - as within seconds of Shadow shouting that a massive eruption of flame occurred that completely shrouded and seemingly took the chaos emerald with it. Rouge would have been charred had she not gotten out of the way. Shadow instinctively stood in front of the group in a protective, battle stance as the others got into their own fighting stances - for once the flames and lava cleared, a true monster was revealed. With his eyes widened, Barry knew immediately what it was:

_Iblis…_

Iblis was certainly quite the beast. Barry was sure this was not his only form, though he did not want to wait around to see any others.

Iblis in the form he appeared to the six was similar to the weak worm-like demons that he spawned around the volcano, though extended to truly massive proportions, his head alone being virtually the size of a moderately sized building while his body was akin to the trailer one would attach to a eighteen wheeled truck - perhaps two lined up beside each other even. The entirety of the beast's body appeared to be made out of concentrated lava, from the massive snake-like body to the massive, armored head. The only exceptions appeared to be it’s sharp teeth and the armor protruding from the body - the latter of which appeared to be made of black, volcanic rock. The armor around the hard was complete by the presence of three large, sharpened horns. One located between Iblis’ prominent, dark green, triangular pupil eyes. The others were on either side of the beast’s jaw.

Looking at the beast for the first time triggered yet another splitting migraine and flash of purple vision for Barry. He gritted his teeth and groaned in pain for another few moments as the beast’s horrific roar bellowed throughout the volcano. He recovered once more, but still the creature did not go away.

To him, there was something strangely familiar about this beast once he looked at its eyes. It’s green, yet soulless eyes. There was as much familiar as there was new, yet at the same time his brain was incapable of piecing it together.

Nor did it have the time to do so, as defeating Iblis was now top priority for the lot of them.

Before any of the six could even speak at all, Iblis let out it’s booming roar and from it’s smouth a massive stream of fire was unleashed upon the group. All of them gasped, some of them shouted, though all of them immediately jumped, glided or flew out of the way of the fire’s radius.

“Heh!” Sonic snarked, “This must be the origin for those monsters from before! Guess ‘mama’s’ come out to play!”

“Sonic, take this seriously!” Shadow exclaimed to the blue hedgehog, though Sonic was ever the cocky creature:

“Relax Shadow, I think we’ve got this one easy!”

With that having been said, Sonic rushed in the direction that the six had just recently come from - just barely grazing the large continuous stream of fire as he did so. With a slight grumble, Shadow did the same along the opposite side of the flame, until the two were racing along the mountainous walls of the dark chamber’s exteriors. Practically in sync with each other as Shadow realized what Sonic’s plan of attack was, they waited until they had just the right amount of height before launching themselves directly at the creature.

Iblis attempted to raise it’s head to aim at them, but their sheer momentum more than outpaced it - their fists soon landed onto it’s eyes, and their feet kicked said eyes as they bounced off of the creature once it’s closed its eyes and writhed in pain from the blows, even being knocked back a bit from it’s position due to the strength of both combined blows.

Luckily, Sonic and Shadow landed on two small pillars of rock that spared them from falling directly into the sea of lava beneath them. However, the snake-like demon lord was not finished with them quite yet. As it recovered from the first strike made to it, it attempted to swing the lower half of its body at all of them - first Sonic, then the four on the large platform, and then shadow. All managed to dodge it. Once it had completely flipped its body around, it submerged itself into the lava beneath itself - seemingly having retreated from the battle.

“Is that all?” Sonic questioned, before chuckling a bit, “Wow, what a coward!”

Shadow however, was not so easily convinced: his eyes were locked in battle-ready suspicion, looking around the massive caldera for any sign of the monster.

When Sonic was inevitably proven wrong, he was not surprised at all.

Crawling from the lava around the platform were hordes of Iblis’ various relatively weak minions. The lizard demons crawled onto the platform itself, while the more worm-like beasts surrounded it best that they could and fired balls of flame at the grounded four while the lizard beasts attempted to lunge at them. Seemingly endless were their numbers, even if all of them were excessively weak to strikes upon their bodies.

Sonic gasped as he watch this occur, not wanting his friends to be hurt:

“Guys! Hold on!”

However, his panic was soon replaced by further shock as a massive stream of lava shot up at him - forcing him to gasp and jump out of the way immediately. He ultimately had to use aerial momentum to just barely latch onto the rock that Shadow was held up on. Shadow did have to slide himself down to the lower end of the rock in order to catch Sonic’s hand though, lest the blue hedgehog fall directly into the lava.

Sonic gratefully looked back up to Shadow, using his free hand to give the black hedgehog a thumbs up:

“Thanks, Shadow!”

“Don’t mention it.” Shadow wasted no time pulling himself and Sonic back up, though naturally the moment they were on more steady ground was also the moment that Iblis re-emerged from beneath the surface of the lava surrounding them.

Lunging it’s entire body high into the air, the beast with one more growl charged directly at them from above. 

However, both Hedgehogs stood their ground. Only once the creature was just about to make impact with the rock did Shadow break his brave stance and make his move against it:

“Chaos Spear!”

One well timed blast of a chaos spear struck the base of the creature’s center horn, which alone caused enough of a blast to knock the beast off it’s collision course with the rock, though as if that wasn’t enough Sonic himself spun himself into his ball form and quickly rammed the creature in the spot of impact as hard as he possibly could. Not only did it get one final shriek from the creature before it was once again submerged, though it visibly caused enough damage to the horn to make it start becoming looser as though it was now beginning to come off. 

It should also be stressed that by running up the length of the creature’s body as it descended into the lava and then jumping back onto the rock formation with Shadow on it, Sonic was able to save himself from falling into the molten liquid rock.

With Iblis once again submerged, Sonic and Shadow turned back to the remaining four of the group to make sure that they were doing well as well. Luckily, they were. 

They were gathered in the center of the platform, focused entirely on not letting the endless horde of lava beasts get too much time to strike. While single punches, kicks or tail swipes took each individual out easily it was still apparent that their bodies were deadly to touch for long periods of time and that with enough numbers even these beasts could cause serious damage.

Thankfully, Barry’s ability to create miniature vortexes of fast-moving wind using the momentum generated by vibrating & twirling his arms around proved too much for the creatures to handle as well as an effective strategy against the worm-like minions providing support for the lizards - who were mercilessly being picked up and tossed at the former as though they were nothing, and thus causing both types of creatures to meet their demise. 

Both Sonic and Shadow were happy to know that for the time being, their allies were holding their own against the weaker minions. However, they still had to deal with the progenitor. 

Speaking of which, Iblis wasted little time in yet again breaching the surface - though this time he paused right in front of the two small hedgehogs. Just as the two prepared for another round of their battle against him, Iblis tilted his head back to let out a deep roar before lifting it back in their direction to let out another stream of fire from its mouth.

However, as with the first time it attempted this, they avoided it by jumping into the air. 

Instead of striking the monster’s eyes this time, Sonic instead landed a ball-form strike to the scar at the base of the loosening horn, before also striking one of the eyes yet again for good measure. Sonic grabbed onto one of the jawline horns as the beast tilted it’s head and roared in pain - thrashing it’s head from side to side.

That was Shadow’s opportunity to strike. 

With a single, well placed punch to the scar created by his previous attack, the sheer force of the ultimate lifeform’s strength was enough to get the horn to actually break off from the beast’s head - complete with a loud, echoing cracking sound as it did so and promptly fell into the lava below. As Iblis yet again shrieked in absolute pain, it was revealed that a third eye had been hidden within the horn.

“Chaos Spear!” - Shadow wasted no time in unleashing a mid-air strike to the creature’s now exposed third eye. Once the chaos spear struck the beast and caused it’s third eye to erupt into an intense explosion across its face, Iblis virtually screamed in absolute agony. It thrashed itself around more violently than ever, eventually forcing Sonic to jump off of it before it yet again descended itself into the depths of the lava below.

Thankfully, Sonic and Shadow both maintained enough momentum be it from Sonic’s speed or Shadow’s rocket shoes in order to land on the platform with their four companions as well as a few remaining stragglers of Iblis’ minions.

The remaining worm-like creatures were taken out quickly by Sonic bouncing off of their heads like he was a pinball ball, maintaining enough force to destroy all of them before landing back on the platform. Shadow took out the remaining lizard beasts by stomping on one’s head and using that same foot to sideswipe one that was preparing to breathe it’s fire onto him from behind. Knuckles gave a third straggling lizard beast an uppercut before it could sneak up on Barry.

With the last of the minions dispersed into nothing and Iblis submerged in the lava, the six heroes were all reunited in the form of their battle stances. 

They all knew that it wasn’t quite over yet. Though the chamber returned to silence for a few moments more, there was a sense amongst all of them that Iblis was not finished ‘playing’ just yet.

Their hunches were quickly proven correct.

Iblis emerged from the lava one more time, determined to finally finish off it’s six enemies once and for all - in the form of making a final charge directly towards the platform that all of them were gathered on, displacing waves of lava in his wake as he roared angrily at his incoming prey.

However, it had underestimated the arsenal of the three speedsters that it was fighting.

Shadow, Sonic and Barry did not waste any time as it approached from the far end of the caldera. Following Sonic’s strategy from the beginning of the battle, the three of them rushed at their top speeds up the rock walls behind them until they were at just the right height before launching themselves directly at the creature as it approached the platform like a freight train. Just as it opened it’s jaws to roar did they make their impact.

Barry struck the left eye with a maximum momentum punch, and Shadow struck the right eye with a maximum momentum kick powered by his own personal strength. Sonic, in ball form, struck the center eye with maximum ball-state momentum.

A shockwave emitted from the impacts as the three speedsters successfully navigated themselves back to the platform with their four allies - watching as Iblis screamed in agony one last time as he was sent back to the wall on the other side of the caldera by the sheer might of their combined strikes. Not only that, but the collision that the beast made with the wall was strong enough to create a hole in the wall of rocks - the sound of crumbling rock and splashing lava echoing throughout the massive chamber as the creature tumbled out of it along with a newly created lava flow and also with one final cry, this time one of defeat.

With Iblis now forced into a different chamber of the volcano, it seemingly lost interest in the group and fled to deeper depths of the lava and magma in order to lick its wounds. 

As silence returned to the group of six, the heroes turned to each other; all of them had but one issue on their mind:

“Does that thing still have the chaos emerald?!” Tails exclaimed, being the first to bring up the issue. To the happiness of all, Shadow quickly revealed that he had the cyan-turquoise emerald in his hands, having grabbed it from the creature during the final phases of the battle.

Everyone nearly sighed with relief after seeing it.

“What was that thing?!” Tails exclaimed after that had been settled, the second thing on his mind.

“I’m assuming that thing was Iblis” Barry remarked, remembering exactly what he had been told about this future, “The being that ends up destroying the world, and making all of this happen.”

“Oh yeah?” Knuckles snarked, “Well for a destroyer of the world, he wasn’t so tough!”

“More than likely, that was some kind of larval or transitional stage.” Shadow was swift to explain, “It’s almost certain that we did not fight that beast in its most powerful state, and I for one would rather get back to the present time before we actually do.”

There was a nod of agreement from the others in response to his words. Absolutely none of the group wanted to stick around for _that_.

“So” Barry spoke once more, “How are we going to get back to the present, again? Are we just going to like, use the chaos emeralds or something?”

“Well, yeah” Sonic nodded, “Unless you got any better ideas?”

Barry thought about it, though he was hard-pressed to come up with any other idea on how to get back to the present. He knew he could theoretically create a fourth flashpoint, though knew that would change _everything_ \- if there was a method that would get them back to the present without causing yet another massive rift throughout the universe, he would certainly prefer it to another flashpoint. However, as he still needed an explanation on what the chaos emeralds were, he worded his response accordingly:

“Well, no,” he admitted, “I don’t have a single idea on how else to get back to the present. But, how exactly would the chaos emeralds help with that?”

“Simple” Tails exclaimed, “The seven chaos emeralds are each, essentially, generators of unlimited chaos energy - with each individual emerald giving off a different type of chaos energy. I can create fake emeralds with the same wavelength and overall properties, though my fake emeralds can only have a limited supply of energy while the real ones can both store and generate energy near endlessly! The chaos emeralds are a source of truly unlimited power, hence why it’s always most important that they are kept out of the wrong hands! The only thing more powerful than them is the Master Emerald.”

“Which” Knuckles interjected, “I am usually guarding, but since I had to come in and help you guys again I phoned in the Chaotix to substitute.”

As he stood by and listened to every word that the young fox said, all he could picture in his mind was the idea of these emeralds existing on earth in his previous timeline. The things that people like Luthor and the innumerous other villains would do to get their hands on those emeralds was about as unlimited as the power they would give to them. He almost shivered at the thought of what Darkseid would be willing to do to get his hands on them, or what he would do if he did acquire them.

His thoughts were interrupted by Tails continuing to speak:

“For the most part though, the emeralds are only most useful if one acquires all seven of them. So I’m not entirely sure myself if two will be enough to take us back to the present, but I know that with one chaos emerald, chaos control does have the ability to temporarily freeze time in the immediate area around the emerald!”

Shadow nodded at that point, speaking out an explanation of his own:

“That’s correct” he said, “In addition, the sensation I felt when I was sent to this time period felt very similar to my own chaos control, only transporting me through time instead of freezing it.”

It was then that Barry remembered that certain something which was told to him earlier; regarding what chaos energy had similar properties to:

“I think trying with the two we have right now is at least worth a shot” Barry said with a nod, not bothering to explain why it was that he suddenly felt this way, “We might as well try it while we’re here.”

Sonic and Shadow turned to each other, and as Shadow pulled out his green chaos emerald he tossed the cyan one over to Sonic - who perfectly caught it in his hand. With one more exchange of nods between the two, they approached each other with the emeralds in-hand. Holding their emeralds close to each other as they held out their hands into the air, the two said in near unison:

“Chaos Control!”

And like that, the emeralds flashed a surge of bright light before within an instant a mysterious portal was opened through the sheer power of their combined energies, starting as a small white light that travelled upwards into the air before turning into the larger portal itself. The emeralds themselves seemed to disappear, being sucked into the rift that they themselves created - presumably to be found on the other side. Barry was stunned as it appeared like a ripple in both space and time had just occurred before his eyes within a matter of seconds, a swirling vortex of blue and white that had just materialized out of thin air. Or, out of the power of ‘chaos energy’.

_I definitely need to do more research on these things…_

Before any of the others could even speak, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles rushed into the portal and disappeared into it - travelling to whatever was on the receiving end of it. Rouge took flight and was prepared to enter it, turning back only to see what Shadow and Barry were going to do.

Barry and Shadow both were about to follow Rouge as she flew into the portal and disappeared to wherever it led, though both were stopped by the sound of something behind them.

The sound of crackling fire.

Turning around, the two saw a small stack of fire burning beside a cloud of pitch black darkness. Peering their eyes, they were able to see movement within the darkness - Mephiles. Emerging from the darkness in a manner impossible to decipher whether or not he was coming from the darkness or the ground, he was fixated entirely on the fire in front of him as it burned and crackled with each passing second.

Only when he looked directly at the two did the fire intensify, suddenly growing larger and wider within a single instant as though the flame itself was inherently enraged with their presence.

Allowing Rouge to vanish into the portal and for the portal to vanish after her, Shadow and Barry silently opted to instead chase after their common enemy. While Shadow gracefully skated and Barry quickly ran, Mephiles seemed to not move his legs what-so-ever as he moved across the ground.

Nor did he or either of them say a single word.

He was quickly leading them somewhere, and even more clearly challenging them, though neither of them had any idea as to where they were being led other than the fact it was yet another chamber of the volcano.

Soon enough, Mephiles seemingly vanished from their sights just as they reached whatever section of the volcano that he had been leading them towards - yet another circular platform surrounded by lava within the area of the massive caldera itself. Above them was only pitch, black darkness though around them the flowing lava provided enough lighting for moderately decent visibility. A small wall of volcanic rock provided small lava falls which fed into the greater stream surrounding the platform they were on.

However, there was the matter of where Mephiles had gone.

The answer was that he was in this section with them, though was standing above them - looking down on them from a single spire of rock, directly above a mysterious purple orb that rested in the ‘claws’ of this spire. 

He made sure to point out how ‘comedic’ he found their choices of actions:

“So, decided to void your return tickets, did you?” 

“Mephiles!” Barry exclaimed as he glared at the demon standing above him, “You lied to me! You’re the one who ruined this world, aren’t you?!”

Mephiles softly and coldly chuckled in response, finding the human quite amusing so it seemed. This only response was a dry:

“The answer's yes, and no...perhaps it’s better to show you two.”

With a snap of his finger, something appeared before the two - something which shocked both of them, but Shadow far more than Barry. It appeared to be Shadow himself, trapped in a rhombus-like stasis pod, bright pink lights surrounding him as he appeared to be permanently stuck in some form of deep sleep with his arms and legs both restrained on the inside - as though he were nothing more than a prisoner. Looking at this sight brought back deep memories Shadow had from his past, not a single one of them present. The sight also made his eyes widen, almost as though he was having a hard time believing what he was seeing to be real.

Mephiles was quick to confirm:

“Yes” he said to the stunned Shadow, “That’s you.”

The demonic being was quick to continue his explanation while the two’s eyes were locked on the apparition he was presenting to them:

“After the world was devastated by Iblis’ flames, what do you think happened? A search for the guilty. Who did this you may ask? Society wasn’t just _jealous_ of your power, they _feared_ it. They used this incident as an excuse, to hunt you down.”

Shadow couldn’t help but bow his head and turn away from the sight of himself as a prisoner of the very people he was created to protect. The very people who employed him. It was always in the background of his mind that something like this would happen, though actually seeing and being told that it was in store for him in the future, it was all too real even for him to take.

“Shadow…” Barry softly spoke as he saw the Hedgehog’s response. He felt sympathy for his newfound ally, though of course his presence was not forgotten by Mephiles:

“And do you honestly think this would not befall yourself, Barry?” the entity said to the human, “Now that your powers have been restored, do you not think that eventually society shall turn it’s back on you as well? The story is all the same. Today’s heroes can just as easily become tomorrow’s villains. Who’s to say that this event would not have happened in the previous timeline you were in, following such devastation of your world? If it can happen to someone like Shadow, surely it can happen to someone such as yourself. ”

Soon, Barry was reduced to a similar response as Shadow. Reduced to at the very least silence. The fact that memories of the previous timeline were yet again triggered in his brain did not help him either.

Seeing as how both Shadow and Barry were successfully silenced, Mephiles took the opportunity to continue speaking to the two of them:

“Come with me” he said, holding out a single hand, “Let the three of us punish this world and it’s foolish society. It’s only fair to give back what was intended for _you_ ! You have every right to want _justice_!”

Thankfully for all of existence, Shadow was not so easily manipulated. Lifting his head back up and turning to Mephiles he spoke defiantly:

“That’s absurd!” he exclaimed as he glared at the evil being, “Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it alone.”

Barry, with Shadow saying everything he wanted to say, nodded in response while glaring at Mephiles himself. Mephiles, for his part, seemed to be processing his next words. Whether he expected Shadow and Barry to reject his offer or not was difficult to decipher, though response presented the latter:

“You forgive this folly then?” he asked while gesturing a hand towards the apparition of the imprisoned Shadow of the future. Shadow only had one, defiant thing to say in response to that:

“I determine _my own_ destiny.”

Mephiles was silent in response to what was said to him. At first, it was as though he had completely been surprised by what was said to him. Within moments however, the look in his soulless eyes gave off the sense that he had accepted Shadow and Barry’s responses - though he was far from being willing to simply let them leave. Most certainly not alive. Extending his arms out to either side of his body, soon he, Barry, Shadow and seemingly all that surrounded them were enveloped in a black flash - as though all of the light that there was in the world had suddenly gone out, though just as quickly that flash of black turned into a flash of blinding white as the light had returned before anyone could possibly comprehend it’s prior absence. Once the bright light faded, Shadow and Barry could both now see what Mephiles truly was; for he had finally revealed what was undoubtedly his ‘true’ form to them.

While he still resembled Shadow’s form, he was now far more demonic in appearance. Any resemblance to a pale flesh color was replaced with a pale, almost rock-like blue appearance. In fact, his entire body now appeared as though it was made of some mixture of both leather and rock, with his stripes appearing to be bright, almost blue yet also almost white crystals. The sclera of his eyes turned a deep, piercing red though the reptilian green pupils remained. His hands and feet no longer resembled Shadow’s, only vaguely in shape. There were no rings or gloves, only a black hand with crystalline claws for tips. His feet had no shoes either, instead only some twisted mass of crystalline features that vaguely resembled some type of foot and had the same function as them. As if these details were not enough, the demon’s face was now even more unnatural, as he neither had a mouth nor a nose any longer. For that matter, even his ‘ears’ now seemed to be curled in a manner somewhat reminiscent of demonic horns. All of this while an aura of darkness, a flame of black, purple and blue, was surrounding him - further bringing him into an appearance that seemed far more unnatural, even more so than the appearance he had been using up to this point.

Despite all of this, neither Shadow nor Barry dare showed Mephiles any fear. They readied their battle stances, knowing full well that they were in for a fight.

That said, Mephiles’ attitude came off as though he hardly viewed this as an honest battle at all.

“Such foolishness” he commented as he gazed down upon the two from his perch, “Very well, let’s see how long the two of you can entertain me.”

Mephiles made sure that he made the first strike in the battle, and leaped from his perch in an aerial charge directly towards Barry and Shadow with speed nearly comparable to their own. Assuming that he was intending to strike them, the two swiftly jumped out of the way - only to watch as Mephiles vanished into the ground with yet another black cloud of darkness, accompanied by the entity’s demonic laughter.

It didn’t take long for them to realize what he was actually intending to do.

Within moments, a pulsing surge of darkness came over Shadow, Barry and the entire area around them. While it made a shiver run down the two’s spine, it did not give them any real pain. What it did accomplish however was turning the flames and flowing lava around them from their natural red color to a more unnatural blue color - by extension changing the lighting around the area as well, to a point where things appeared to be darker yet at the same time neither Shadow nor Barry suffered from impaired visibility. Though this gave off the appearance that the area was now cooler, in reality this blue lava was actually notably more heated than the prior red, with both Shadow and Barry feeling it all too well.

Just as Shadow and Barry began to ponder where the demon himself had gone to, he materialized. Under Shadow’s feet, as though he was part of the ground beneath him. Not only that, but it was as though he was Shadow’s very own shadow himself - moving with any stance or movement that Shadow made, mimicking him flawlessly.

The moment Shadow looked down and saw that, his eyes widened in shock before turning into an angry glare. All he could hiss out of his mouth was:

“Your tricks won’t work on me, I know who I am!”

Mephiles only laughed maniacally in response as he mimicked every movement Shadow made in flawless synchronicity. Though Shadow kicked and punched at the ground, even fired chaos spears and other projectiles or beams of chaos energy all he accomplished was creating craters in the ground. Mephiles remained his shadow. Barry could only watch, not knowing what to do.

Of course, Mephiles did not forget about him.

Distracting both Shadow and Barry, suddenly the blue lava surrounding them erupted into a tall wall of intense blue flame with an echoing roar throughout the area. From this fire materialized dark silhouettes - each humanoid in shape though of varying heights and proportions. As these silhouettes exited the wall of flame and became figures standing on the circular platform with Shadow and Barry, the latter’s eyes widened as another shiver ran down his entire spine.

“No....”

He was virtually reduced to tears, though they were unrecognizable due to how much his body was sweating with the heat surrounding him. 

“No” he repeated, “This...this can’t be…”

Surrounding him and Shadow, was the Justice League as well as the Teen Titans. Barry recognized every single one of them. Superman, Hal Jordan, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Shazam, Hawkman, Cyborg, Mera, Aquaman, John Constantine, Zatanna, Nightwing, Starfire, Robin, Raven, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl, Superboy, Kid Flash I, Kid Flash II, Speedy, Bumblebee, Batwoman, Batgirl, and even Lex Luthor.

Every single one of them was just as Barry remembered, including Damian being the older and more handsome teenager that Barry last saw him as - though these were not the same figures that he remembered. All of them appeared to be without color, reduced to nothing but shades of black and grey - a look that made even Batman and Raven seem unnatural due to the complete absence of their natural skin colors as well as any color that their suits had. Of course, Hal and Beast Boy certainly looked the most unnatural, with their green being exchanged for a lifeless grey, and Beast Boy’s suit now being a dark black.

That’s not to mention the fact that none of them had their pupils, only pure red scleras that present not souls, but only lifeless and evil and obedience to the demonic being that summoned them to the playing field. Gone were Superboy’s beautiful crystal eyes, Batman and Robin’s white mask ‘holes’ and even the two Wallys’ own innocent appearances as Barry’s own nephews.

Barry quivered as he saw them, his guard being forcibly let down by the sight thrusted upon his eyes. All of his friends. Members of his family. They looked just as he remembered them previously looking, yet now were gazing upon him with soulless, emotionless looks to their faces - reduced to being nothing but pawns of a demonic entity. He didn’t even know if these were really them, or just apparitions.

Only Shadow, who did not recognize these people at all, remained in a battle stance as these figures surrounded him and the Flash. He could see the Flash was emotionally distraught, though knew full well that it was important for his ally to remain focused: 

“Flash!” he shouted, “These aren’t the people you remember them to be! You need to focus yourself, let go of your past!”

Barry shook his head of the tears joining with his sweat, and responded with a nod. Though it pained him to no end, he knew that Shadow was right. He had to battle his mind, even though the more he looked at these ‘nega’ apparitions of his friends, family and allies the more his mind flashed with visions of them in their colored, lively states. 

Mephiles only laughed in response once more, saying to the two of them in an almost mocking tone of voice:

“Try to forget all you want” he mocked, “There’s nothing you can do to change the fact that _you_ are why they are no longer part of this world.”

“No!” Barry yelled, now more angry and distraught than ever before, “I didn’t kill them! Darkseid did! The Paradooms did! I didn’t kill them!”

“Ha” Mephiles almost chuckled, “Perhaps that is true when speaking of the literal sense, but let’s see if they feel that way, shall we?”

With those words having been exchanged, the true battle began. The soulless copies of the Justice League, Titans and Luthor approached Shadow and Barry with full intent of causing harm to them, though the two living heroes were not going to go down easily. Superman, Superboy, Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl immediately charged at Shadow - with Superboy being one to strike Shadow first with a bunch. Though he was able to push Shadow to the edge of the platform with but one punch, Shadow did manage to use his reflexes and block the punch from striking his face, allowing him to keep his feet planted on the ground. Still, that didn’t stop the much larger Superman from getting a direct blow from the side which did successfully knock Shadow to the ground as well as generate a good sized crater. 

That said however, Superman was kept from flying upwards and landing on Shadow when Shadow used two beams of chaos energy from his hands to successfully disrupt Superman’s planned attack. He later had to deal with Wonderwoman as well as Wonder Girl though, with Superboy flying overhead like some form of support. 

With Superboy using his heat vision while Wonder Girl and Wonderwoman lunged at Shadow to kick and punch at the smaller target, it was a testament to Shadow’s strength that he was able to hold his own at all against them. Whenever a hit was landed upon him, it was far stronger than any opponent he’d ever faced before, though only the ultimate lifeform would be able to withstand this kind of battle. Any normal mortal would have had their bones long destroyed by this point.

Shadow’s own retaliation strikes were just as hard, as he was no longer holding anything back. Many times each of them would take turns sending the other barreling to the other end of the platform, only to charge at each other once more for a few more strikes. Even when Superman rejoined the battle, using his heat vision in tandem with Superboy’s to send an airborne Shadow back to the ground, it only seemed to moderately harm Shadow rather than render him unable to fight further. However, scratches and signs of battle were increasingly present on all of their bodies, showing that the ultimate life was in fact fighting his matches.

Even so, he was going to press on until the bitter end.

While Shadow did his best to hold his own against the most powerful members of the minions, Barry was left with the rest. He had to use all of his speed to dodge the charge that Shazam made at him, and was equally lucky to evade a dropkick attempted by Batman. He had to swiftly jump to avoid his neck being cut open by Robin’s own use of a sword afterwards - though unfortunately for him he was then swiftly brought down by both of his nephews slamming into him from either side with their own super speed. 

“I didn’t kill you! It’s not my fault!” Barry exclaimed as he recovered, in just enough time to avoid the white noise blast of cyborg’s arm cannon, managing to race ahead of it’s blast until he gave up on trying, allowing the Kid Flashes to resume focus on Barry for a while as they quickly used their speed to race their uncle allowed the perimeter of the platform - the three all going in a circle while the younger two attempted to repeatedly ram into their uncle, with Barry having to speed up or slow down to successfully dodge either of them.

He did not want to hurt either of them. To his brain, this was perhaps the highest form of torture that any being could force upon him.

“Kids” he said to them, “I don’t want to hurt you! Just, snap out of it, if it’s really you! If it’s really you, I know you’re in there somewhere!”

“That’s too bad!” Wally II remarked, his voice echoing as though multiple versions of him were speaking at once through his own mouth.

“Because we do want to hurt _you_!” Wally I added in, both him and his cousin now grinning almost ear to ear in the most sadistic of fashions, before they grabbed each other’s hands and charged at their uncle. Barry managed to jump over them and was then behind them, but he did not seem to realize what their strategy was, as Wally I carried Wally II into a small impromptu tornado and soon enough threw him at Barry, with Wally II kicking his uncle in the face and to the ground before the former had even realized what was going on.

As he slowly recovered to his feet, Barry could only force himself to ask but one question:

“W-w-why?”

“Because” Raven said as she approached him from behind, holding hands with Robin who approached Barry along with her, “You did this to us” she coldly said as she used one of her black beam attacks aimed for Barry’s head. Barry managed to dodge it, though was yet again knocked to the ground when Wally I rammed into him with his own speedster speed.

“Ugh” Barry once more groaned as he got up from the blow, but he continued to plead to those attacking him in a hope that their true selves were still underneath their soulless appearances, “I, I didn’t do anything to you! It was Darkseid! It was his Paradooms! I didn’t do anything!”

“If you hadn’t travelled through time in the first place” Damian explained as he embraced Raven’s hands with both of his own, the two gazing into each other’s now reddened, soulless eyes, “Me and Raven would be together in happiness.”

“Rather”, Raven added just as coldly, “Than in misery.”

Barry was speechless upon hearing the two’s words, and was further rendered speechless as the two almost disturbingly kissed in front of him. Normally, such a sight would be beautiful - true love expressing itself. However here it was unnatural and not helped by the fact their tongues were elongated, forked and snake-like as they entangled and danced with one another even after the lips had already separated - causing saliva to drool from both of the two as they remained inhumanly embracing each other. 

Barry attempted to use their distraction to his own advantage, though before he could speed away he was surrounded by a purple-black aura that lifted him above the ground and effectively stopped him in his tracks - Raven using her powers to stop him without breaking her ‘kiss’ with Robin.

Before Barry could even think about finding a way to escape Raven’s grasp, the black aura dispersed - but only because he had been tackled by a grey colored Tiger: Beast Boy. Once the two were on the ground, the soulless version of the boy turned into a massive anaconda snake and wrapped himself around Barry with full intent of suffocating him to his demise, while others such as Batman, Blue Beetle, Hawkman, Lex Luthor, John Constantine and Zatanna gathered as if to ensure that if he escaped the snake’s grip that they would ensure said escape would be futile. 

As the choking, barely able to struggle Barry looked into Beast Boy’s eyes, he still only saw that pure red, soulless, lifeless sclera. No pupils or irises. Not even those of the reptile he had turned into. Only pure red, glowing eyes. Just as with all of the others. He wanted to believe the boy he once knew was still in there, but another part of him feared the absolute worst. 

It wouldn’t be long before his rib cage would begin to shatter. It didn’t help that as he was facing his potential end at the hands of what was once a titan, all he could hear in his ears were repeated words from the others, their voices sounding like a symphony of judgement, blame and scorn as they spoke at him:

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

Those words, repeating from the mouths of his former friends. In their voices, though each one sounded as though an army of them was speaking at once, thus creating a true orchestra of echoing words once the lot of them spoke these condemnations at once.

It was enough to make his mind begin to break, in addition to the rest of his body from the mounting pressure of a long, thick cylinder of muscle slowly crushing him.

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

Repeating on and on....

“It’s your fault!”

“You did this to us!”

It was enough to get to him. As he gritted his teeth, as he closed his eyes tightly. It got to him. It did not take much longer at all before finally he snapped. The migraines kicked in. The purple vision yet again began to flash rapidly in his eyes, until the stress of all that was going on around him was too much for him to take anymore.

With one loud, enraged scream, a surge of purple electricity coursed over his body, making Beast Boy scream in pain as he felt the full force of it’s electric shock. With his coils weakening, Barry was able to vibrate his body out of Beast Boy’s grasp as the titan slithered away from him to allow the others to have their turn. However, even they took a few steps back from Barry - at least until he found the nagging headache too much to handle. Just looking at his former allies was enough to send it into overdrive, forcing him to his knees while he held his head in agony.

His so-called allies showed him no mercy, however. Not even ‘Batman’ - who in fact made the first strike. Batman first used some of the smoke bombs from inside of his utility belt, surrounding Barry with vision-impairing smoke while Batman himself leaped into the air and descended upon the Flash with his cape extended almost as though it was a side of wings. Barry successfully kicked to the ground and pinned by the man’s feet - though of course he had enough sense to quickly vibrate before Batman could take out one of his sharp Batarangs and use it to slit Barry’s neck wide open. Had he not vibrated out of Bruce’s grasp, that would indeed have been his fate. Batman did jump out of Barry’s way before he could be kicked from behind, though at the very least Barry had saved his own life.

For the time being, anyway.

Having a standoff with Batman wasn’t precisely the best career choice for him. Nor did he ever want to have one. Yet here the two, standing before each other in their battle stances - even if it was an evil, soulless version of the man he came to view as a friend and an ally.

However, in focusing so much on Batman he neglected the various other fighters on the playing field. It was only mere seconds before Batman was standing idly by when Barry was suddenly grabbed from behind, flipped onto the ground, and seemingly dragged by invisible force into the same rock spire that Mephiles himself had been standing on prior to the battle. It was not an invisible force of course, Barry could see just barely that it was a strong grip of Martian Manhunter that had grabbed onto him. He was intangible and so appeared transparent, though his shape could just barely be seen by Barry’s eyes. Still, his grip was strong - and his powerful mind worked fast, fast enough that he began relentlessly bashing Barry’s head brutally against the rock, even managing to draw blood from the back of the blonde’s head, at least four times before lifting him by the neck and beginning to suffocate him as he struggled to break free from the martian’s grasp. The usually green though now grayscale martian did phase himself out of his intangibility, though it was perhaps only so that Barry would have a face to properly look at during his end.

J’onn was soon joined by Hawkman, who also without saying any words pulled out his nth mace and with as much strength as he could muster smashed Barry’s right knee with it - making Barry let out a piercing whine as he could feel his bone actually crack wide open from the strike, let alone the mace’s electric stunning effect and the spikes stabbing into his skin - yet again drawing blood from the speedster.

With how hard the hand of what once was his friend held down on his throat, the speedster couldn’t even speak. All he could muster up the strength to do was gaze into his former ally’s silent, soulless eyes. 

There was not even a semblance of the martian man he recognized - and the same could be said for Hawkman, Katar. He began to doubt that there was any chance that the people he remembered and missed were actually still present in any sense of the word.

Though he wanted to keep up the fight, the fact that it seemed as though all of who were once his friends wanted him dead - blaming him for their horrible fates even, proved enough to break him. Slowly he allowed his eyes to close, silently accepting his fate.

_At the very least,_ he thought as blackness took over his vision, _this will all be over soon._

And, fortunately for the Flash, it was.

With the sound of a single blast followed by a familiar screech of alien pain, Barry opened his eyes to find that he was released from J’onn’s grasp, and now the Martian Manhunter seemed to be screaming and writhing in pain - the arm that had been strangling Barry having just been severed at the elbow, with the Martian himself primarily screaming from the fact that the part of that arm still connected him appeared to be now on fire.

Both Flash and Hawkman looked to see Shadow glaring in their direction. He had scratches, cuts and bruises all over him as well as blood on some parts of fur let alone the fact he was panting as though he was heavily exhausted, but the smoke from his hand revealed he had done a chaos spear in order to save Barry. Knowing this, Barry and Shadow exchanged nods to one another mere seconds before Barry had to evade a swing of Hawkman’s nth hammer. 

Shadow motioned to join in Barry’s fight, but was distracted when he caught the sight of Superboy charging at him from the air. Having the time to anticipate this, he grabbed the ‘Nega’ Superboy just before impact and with a twirl tossed him directly at Wonder Girl before she could use her lasso on the hedgehog - the two nega titans collided with each other, with a strong enough impact to send both of them back into the blue fire wall that spawned them.

“It doesn’t matter how many of them you defeat, you know” Mephiles mocked from his position as Shadow’s literal shadow, “I’m still your shadow, you can’t even touch me.”

“Whatever it is you’re trying to do, it’s not working on me!” Shadow barked back at Mephiles, though he had hardly any time to confront the demon directly - as within a matter of seconds he was met with Superman.

Having been able to see Superman charging at him, he was able to block the man’s fists from punching him by grabbing hold of them. However, the sheer power of Superman was enough to push Shadow back complete with a shockwave from the impact of their hands meeting - though he hissed and grunted, Shadow planted his feet hard onto the ground and with enough straining was able to actually hold his ground against the kryptonian. 

Just as their hands were liked in trying to shove the other, so were their eyes - locked permanently in a glare directed at one another. Both of them standing their ground. Both of them seemingly testing their muscles to the limit.

Barry would have been astonished at Shadow’s ability to hold his own against the full grown kryptonian if he didn’t have a battle of his own to focus on.

As he waited for his healing factor to kick in regarding his injured knee, he had to worry about the Hawkman still being fixated on him. With this speed impaired by his wounded knee, he could just barely dodge Hawkman’s several attempts at swinging the nth mace at him, having an easier time ducking his head and body than jumping or moving from side to side to evade each swing. 

Eventually, Hawkman did attempt to stomp his foot down on Barry, taking advantage of the man still having a weakened knee by stomping down on that same leg’s foot. With a pained groan, Barry fell to the ground. Having to look back on what looked like his former ally as Hawkman lifted his mace into the air, Barry could only mutter out but one phrase in an almost grieving tone of voice:

“Forgive me…”

With one well timed creation of a wind vertex, Barry was able to blast Hawkman into the air just moments before the mace made contact with his head - giving Barry a few moments to recover his breath. 

Hawkman managed to break his forced ascent by extending his wings, before immediately diving down from the air directly at Barry - still brandishing his mace. Barry closed his eyes and prepared for impact - not with his friend, but rather with a charged up momentum-propelled punch to Hawkman’s face just prior to impact. Combined with the force Hawkman was flying, it was enough to send the thanagarian flying into the wall of blue fire from once he spawned - his nega form seemingly defeated.

Barry took no pleasure in having to do this. In fact, as he saw Hawkman disappear into the ghostly blue flames a vision of the man’s brutal demise from the previous timeline flashed before his eyes - as vivid as though he was witnessing it in life. It was only for half of a second, but was enough to make Barry grimace in pain as he struggled to stand him. His knee would heal, but it needed to heal faster than it was - as the remaining combatants had no intentions of showing the slightly limping speedster any mercy.

He was first approached by his nephews, who were yet again rushing him virtually in tandem with one another. Just as quickly as he finally stood up on both of his feet, Wally II jabbed him right in the wounded knee, forcing him back to the ground with a loud hiss. Before he could even comprehend that, he was struck in the face and nearly fully onto the ground by a punch in the face from Wally I. 

Having to do this was going to hurt the most. He couldn’t even spare the time to take in a deep breath.

_Never in a million years did I picture myself doing this…_

_But you leave me no choice…_

Once he saw that both Wallys were running in opposite directions to one another, Barry swiftly formulated a plan. He could feel that his knee was healing just enough so that he could properly run again, and with a determined face waited until the last possible second to rush - causing both of his nephews to punch each other in the face rather than collide with him. The momentum of their punches both sent the two back a good distance, and gave Barry enough time to get his proper speed going well before the two got back up to their feet and rushed to fight with him once more.

He first slowed down so that he could dodge a direct ramming attack from Wally I, though this left him vulnerable to a rear strike from Wally II. Seeing this coming though, Barry easily turned the tables on his darker skinned nephew by turning himself to the ground and grabbing the boys first before he could properly land the strike. Before Wally II even had the chance to vibrate his way out of his uncle’s grip, the older male flipped him over onto the ground with as much strength as his upper body could muster.

It brought tears to Barry’s eyes, but he wanted and needed this to end.

To his surprise though, he did not see Wally II when he opened his eyes. Only the black ground of the rock he stood on, surrounded by the roaring wall of blue flames. There was no sign of Wally II either in the form of a speedster blur or even a body - as though the boy had suddenly vanished the moment he made contact with the ground.

There was unfortunately little time for Barry to properly comprehend this, for within moments his other nephew punched him directly in the gut and yet again nearly to the ground before speeding off in an effort to make another hit-and-run strike. 

Before the original Kid Flash could land his next strike though, Barry’s quick thinking mind successfully deduced what direction he was charging from, and Barry charged in that same direction at his own top speed. Colliding with Wally I within a matter of moments, with all of his superior physical strength and maximum momentum, Wally grabbed his nephew by his upper arms, headbutted him and then proceeded to throw him towards the lone rock spire on the platform - Wally I letting out but a whimper of agony as his body made enough of impact on the rock to not only get him to cough up blood but also make a notable dent in the rock itself.

What stopped Barry in his tracks however was the fact that his body did not vanish as his cousins did. Instead, it appeared as though color had actually returned to it. His costume returned to its yellow-and-red coloring. His hair returned to it’s light brown coloration. His eyes were closed, though likely regained their blue irises and black pupils. 

Tears streamed Barry’s face as he saw this - his nephew, returned to a normal, living state. Only to be coughing up blood and whimpering in pain before falling to the ground with scarcely any movement at all.

Barry feared the worst. The absolute worst.

_No...no...no no no no no no...._

He instinctively wanted to rush over to Wally to ensure he was okay, but was denied that act of compassion when he was suddenly trapped inside of a black sphere of pure energy - courtesy of the colorless, soulless Hal Jordan. With his emotionless face and soulless red eyes, he denied Barry the ability to investigate Wally’s sudden ‘rebirth’ any further and instead swung him around in a circle multiple times before releasing him into the air as though he were a slingshot - only for John Steward to use his ring to form a massive baseball bat which promptly smacked Barry back down to the impromptu arena, an impact crater forming on the ground when Barry landed.

Barry got up, though was attacked by Hal from behind - kicked brutally in the back, causing him to slide into the knees of Shazam, only to be got by a bubble generated by John Stewart, and from there only transferred to to be smacked around by a giant hand crafted by Hal Jordan, with the speedster making groans, hisses and shouts of agony with each hit landed upon him until he was again tossed towards Shazam, who this time restrained him grappling both of his arms.

Seeing Cyborg approach him with intent of taking advantage of Barry’s restrained status, Barry knew he had to break from Shazam’s grasp quickly. 

  
  


Barry vibrated his way out of Shazam’s grasp the best that he could, at just the right time so that Cyborg blasted Shazam into the wall of blue flame instead of the speedster himself. Of course, Barry had to yet again keep his pace ahead of Cyborg’s blasts afterwards, only this time he performed a turn directly towards the half-robotic man. Though he swayed from side to side in order to evade Cyborg’s attempts to attack him, he ultimately did make a direct hit to Cyborg’s chest with enough force to send Cyborg flying back into the blue wall of flame from which he came - seemingly defeating him for the time being.

Just Barry recovered his breath from his run-ins with the nega of versions of those previous three, he was met with several figures approaching him in order to challenge him to the most unfair of battles.

Lex Luthor, John Constantine, Zatanna, Mera and Aquaman now stood before him with Hal Jordan and John Steward circling the group overhead. With Shadow still preoccupied with both Superman and Wonder Woman - Barry seeing the three still violently tossing each other around - only Barry was there to deal with these individuals.

“John” Barry said to John, remembering that he was the one who told him to create the flashpoint in the first place, “John, I know you’re in there! You were the one who told me to ‘ _clear the board_ ’! This was your idea! You should know that more than anyone! If you’re in there, you should be able to fight this demonic asshole! What kind of occult investigator are you if you let a four foot tall hedgehog enslave you like this?! The real John Constantine would have broken free of his control by now!”

The sound of Mephiles’ laughter echoed through the ‘arena’ in response to that, and even the minions smirked and smiled as though they found amusement in what Barry had yelled out. 

“Choosing the pen rather than the sword?” Mephiles yet again mocked despite not being truly present on the field though speaking as if he were, “I must admit, I am impressed by your attempt at diplomacy. However, fighting fire with words is rather, shall I say, ineffective.”

With any words being said, John Constantine did as his master suggested and conjured up balls of fire which he swiftly launched in Barry’s direction. Barry could only gasp as he used his feet to swiftly avoid the balls of flame, though his evasion of Constantine’s magic made him distracted enough to be struck by several small rocks from the ground that were telekinetically thrown at him by Zatanna.

It was within seconds afterwards that he was yet again struck by the lanterns, both of them spawning enlarged fists from their rings, punching Barry from the back to send him through the air towards the wall of room - only to be grabbed by a black tentacle, which proceeded to wrap around his body briefly before slamming him to the ground.

Barry didn’t even have the time to recover before he had the black boot of a certain Batman crushing down on his neck, the darkly dressed caped crusader yet again looming over him with only the light of the flames around them illuminating him. Damian, Raven, Batgirl and Batwoman were there soon enough, with the others following suit.

“Bruce” Barry pleaded with what little ability to speak that he had, “Please....are….are you in there?”

He received no response, other than the dark knight’s boot crushing down further on his throat - slowly cutting off the speedster’s air supply and making it harder for him to speak. It was just like his battle with Shadow, only without the opponent holding back.

Barry had many things he wanted to say, but he couldn’t. Instead he could only think.

_Bruce...please…_

_I know, deep down, you’re not just his slave._

_You were able to free yourself from Darkseid, you can free yourself from this asshole!_

_Can’t you?_

_Are….are you even there?_

Batman did not speak. He only did. Once it was evident that Barry had effectively been worn out of energy for the time being, Batman lifted his foot off of the man’s throat, picked him up by the neck of his uniform, and shoved him back to the ground so that he was properly facing the others. Or, more accurate, he for whom the others had parted.

Mephiles.

Mephiles had re-emerged from the ground at the front of two separate rows of his apparition minions. Shadow was still occupied with Superman and Wonder Woman, leaving the exhausted Barry without any allies as Mephiles looked upon him with his emotionless demonic face. Looking up at his newfound nemesis, Barry glared angrily. There were many choice words he had for the entity standing before him, but the only ones he could muster the power to speak out were:

“What...what are you?”

“ _What_ I am does not matter to you” Mephiles shook his head in a condescending manner, “Not only would you not be able to truly comprehend it, but you will not be around long enough for it to be relevant to your feeble mortal mind. Be grateful that I am giving you the mercy of oblivion, the _least_ that I can do.”

Barry bowed his head in defeat at that point, accepting his defeat. He was outnumbered, outmatched, and exhausted. It was a miracle he had even lasted as long as he did. 

As Barry looked up only to see how Mephiles intended to kill him - he saw a horrifyingly familiar sight. Two bright, red lights were forming on Mephiles’ eyes. Piercing red lights, matching with his pure red scleras. It was the same type of light that emitted from Darkseid’s eyes:

_He...he can use Omega Beams?..._

He closed his eyes the second he realized what was about to befall him, bracing himself for the intense burning that was surely awaiting him.

He was not the only one seeing this however. Having seen Mephiles emerge from the ground, Shadow was just freeing himself from the grip of Wonder Woman’s lasso through his sheer will alone, and once he saw what Mephiles was about to do to Barry he prepared to charge at the demon, though was briefly stopped by Superman attempting to grapple him from behind. Curling into his ball form and effectively uppercutting the nega kryptonian was enough to free himself from his grasp however, and the ultimate lifeform broke from his fight in an effort to interrupt the execution of the Flash.

All of this happened in a matter of mere seconds.

When Mephiles fired his piercing red omega beams directly at Barry, Shadow successfully intercepted them - jumping in front of Barry just before they could have made contact with the flash. Barry watched as Shadow took the full force of the Omega Beams, but instead of being incinerated like a lantern or singed like a boy wonder the ultimate lifeform only grunted - feeling some form of pain, though not a single part of him seemed burned at all.

Mephiles himself for once seemed shocked as he saw it with his own eyes. Shadow had managed to not only withstand the omega effect energy, but was _absorbing_ it. No mortal being outside of Apokolips or evidently Mephiles himself could do such a thing, yet in a most defiant manner Shadow now had a deep red aura surrounding himself - the power of omega energy enhancing him.

Barry, even the nega minions for that matter, were all speechless. Shadow himself however was fixated solely on Mephiles, glaring at the demonic being with the full force of his rage.

Only one thought crossed Barry’s mind as his mind processed all of this:

_He wasn’t kidding when he said he was the ultimate lifeform...._

The first one to make a move was Batman. Several batarangs were thrown at Shadow from behind to prevent him from making a move on Mephiles - however the omega aura surrounding Shadow caused them all to explode before their sharp wings could even graze Shadow’s skin. From the black smoke came Shadow, speeding through the air in his own black ball-like state, barreling through Batman’s very own chest and out his back with enough speed so that the dark knight couldn’t even properly respond.

Barry was mortified as he saw this, unable to comprehend the sight. There was no blood. No gore whatsoever. It looked as though a hole had been burned clear through the world’s greatest detective, and on the inside was only pure darkness. Batman soon vanished afterwards, a cloud of darkness remaining of him for only a few seconds. As though he wasn’t even a true living being at all.

Still, Barry was able to use this distraction to rush to his fallen nephew’s side.

Shadow had no time to waste on sights however, as he immediately fixated himself on the opponents surrounding him - with all of Mephiles’ minions wanting a piece of him. Hal Jordan and John Stewart attempted to trap him inside of a bubble shield, though with one concentrated pulse of energy it was shattered as though it were an incredibly weak glass. The hedgehog then sent himself into the air with his rocket shoes and grabbed hold of Hal Jordan’s hand by the wrist - the omega energy coursing around him having an incinerating effect on the lantern which ultimately caused the hand to be burned clean off. As it was the hand with the ring on it, this caused Hal Jordan to be reduced to a powerless state and fall to the ground - vanishing just as Batman did upon hitting the ground. 

John Stewart followed not long after. The large fists he desperately generated from his ring were repeatedly destroyed effortlessly as Shadow charged at him - eventually burning directly through the lantern’s body, causing him to vanish in mid-air not long after his entire torso had been destroyed.

Shadow then returned to the ground, making short work of Batwoman with a kick directly to her chest and Batgirl by grabbing her by her shoulders and viciously headbutting her with a full force impact. Lex Luthor was handled by a solid punch directly through his heart, while Aquaman, Mera, Blue Beetle and Cyborg were finished off by four chaos spears being unleashed at once by Shadow merely extending his arm out. With the spears also being endowed with omega effect energy, their forms were easily destroyed with a single set of four small explosions, vaporizing their darkness.

Bumblebee changed to her insect size to charge at Shadow from the air, while Speedy supported her by firing a stream of explosives at the black hedgehog. However, a single shield forged from omega chaos energy made every single arrow prove meaningless. A well timed charge from Shadow’s spin dash easily turned Bumblebee into a dissipating puff of darkness - and decapitated Speedy, with him meeting the same fate once he fell completely to the ground.

The next challenger for the ultimate lifeform was Damian, who charged at him with his sword. Only for said sword to be caught by a clap of Shadow’s hands - the omega energy turning it to useless stub of melted metal within seconds. Damian managed to evade Shadow’s first attempt to strike him, managing to jump over Shadow and get behind him. However, before he could even pull out another piece of equipment the boy was slapped across the face by the back of Shadow’s hand - his face disintegrating to darkness as he fell, before his body followed afterwards.

“DAMIAN!” The ‘nega’ Raven screamed with as much horror and emotion as her colored counterpart, before charging at Shadow with pure absolute rage at what she had just witnessed. With Shadow’s omega aura making him resistant to telekinesis, she restored to her other abilities. Conjuring massive boulders, tentacles and even sharp shards of darkness to throw at Shadow - though the hedgehog tore through every last one as though he was super heated enough cutting through a mere stick of butter. 

Raven herself eventually lunged at him soon after, though the rage she felt towards him blinded her. Though she had a black mass of tentacles and great power accompanying her, Shadow’s unleashed power tore through everything she tried - and even herself as well. With Shadow slicing through her in her ball form as she tried to envelop him in her own darkness, she was soon reduced to nothing but the latter before even that dissipated into absolute nothingness.

John Constantine and Zatanna stepped up to the task next - with their magic shields successfully deflecting Shadow’s spin dashes, allowing Constantine to fire a series of fireballs at Shadow once he was briefly sent back. Zatanna attempted to use her telekinesis magic though she could only find rocks to throw at Shadow - to little effect. Unfortunately for the two magical minions, they were soon destroyed when Shadow unleashed two chaos spears at them - shattering the shields they put up and destroying their bodies entirely.

With all of those individuals vanquished, all that remained to surround Shadow as he stood on the volcanic ground were Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Nightwing and Starfire. Though they were glaring and snarling angrily at Shadow, it was difficult to truly discern if they were mourning those whom Shadow had just defeated or not. 

They wouldn’t have enough time to do so anyway.

The moment that all of them charged Shadow at once, Shadow jumped himself into the air and curled himself up as energy pulsated and electrified around him. Just before impact could be made he let out one mighty battle cry as he extended his body back out:

“Chaos….. _BLAST_!”

With those two words, a massive blast of pure omega chaos energy was unleashed from the hedgehog’s body - completely incinerating the five beings charging at him within a matter of seconds as it’s radius soon encompassed the entire stone platform - even managing to disperse the wall of blue flame surrounding the platform.

Barry watched as this bright red light emitted from Shadow’s body and the burning explosion came in his direction. Grabbing Wally’s body he rushed to the other side of the rock spire and shielded Wally as tightly as he could. Though his body was spared certain incineration thanks to the energy primarily eating away at the rock, Barry still screamed and hissed due to the searing heat all around him. Parts of his clothes and even skin that just barely grazed the energy were still singed as though he had touched an _extremely_ hot stove.

Thankfully, it was all over within seconds. Once Barry, carrying Wally in his arms, emerged from behind the rock all he could see was Shadow standing on the ground with stacks of smoke surrounding him. The chaos blast had released all of the omega energy from Shadow, meaning he was back to his usual form - though still panted heavily after exerting so much power.

Still amazed and horrified, Barry addressed what had just happened:

“Did...did you?”

“It wasn’t them” Shadow swiftly reminded Barry, “Whatever those things were, they weren’t the people you remember them to be.”

Barry looked down at Wally whom he held in his arms, the only one who returned to his living from out of the group. He didn’t know what that meant, if the others were really themselves or not, but all he knew was that at the very least he had one of his nephews back. Or at least he hoped so, as Wally still had his eyes closed. Shadow, seeing the boy in Barry’s arms:

“Is he?”

“My nephew” Barry explained without looking away from the boy, “And he’s alive...only barely..” looking back up at Shadow hee said to his ally, “We need to get out of here.”

Shadow nodded in agreement to those words, though it was at that moment which they were greeted with the return of Mephiles’ diabolical echoing laugh. As Shadow readied his battle stance and looked around the ghostly blue volcanic field for where the demon was, Barry made sure to place the vulnerable Wally down by the rock spire out of the way before doing the same.

“Where are you?!” Shadow exclaimed angrily to the laughing entity, “Show yourself!”

Mephiles coldly chuckled:

“Since you so cordially insist…”

Emerging from behind Shadow as though he had been there the entire time, Mephiles folded his arms and swiftly extended them back out - releasing in the process a powerful concussive blast that sent both Barry and Shadow into the air - Shadow’s spine smashing into the rock spire and proceeding to slide down to the ground, while Barry slid painfully on the ground until being stopped by one of the various impact craters created from the previous battle.

As the two recovered from the blast, Mephiles promptly addressed them in as menacing a tone that he could muster:

“You two have not the faintest idea of the sheer power you are up against.”

Before Mephiles could approach the two any further however, all three had their attention taken by a sudden stream of machine gun bullets that fired at the ground in a line between them. Turning to the direction of these bullets, Shadow was astonished at where the bullets had come from:

E-123 Omega, the bulky, ‘muscular’ robot of red, golden yellow and black that he had no choice but to abandon back in crisis city, as much as it pained him internally to abandon one of the only two beings he considers a true friend. Now he was standing before him, at last fully activated and without any dust on his glossy metallic body at all. One of his clawed hands had shifted into the form of a machine gun, which had of course been the weapon used to gain Mephiles, Shadow and Barry’s attention.

As he turned the gun back into one of his clawed hands, his robotic voice explained his presence:

“Now is designated time” he said to Shadow, “I shall assist.”

While Shadow came closer than ever to smiling, Mephiles was more amused than anything else as he coldly remarked:

“You are nothing but a nuisance, robot.”

Mephiles’ first attempted attack against Omega was to generate a large, piercing bright beam of pure, concentrated energy from the palm of one of his hands - though Omega was able to jump out of the way and retaliated by turning one of his hands into an RPG launcher, firing a missile directly at the demonic being. 

The missile did not get to make impact however, as Mephiles had managed to grab it telekinetically, surrounding it in a black aura akin to Raven’s own powers, and then promptly sent it back on course to Omega himself. However, Omega destroyed it with a second missile anyway.

This moment may have been small, but did distract Mephiles just enough so that Shadow was able to strike him in the back of the head with a sweeping mid-air kick. It managed to knock Mephiles to the ground, though only because Shadow was not holding back any of his physical strength against the demonic being. Landing in between Mephiles and Omega, Shadow readied his battle stance - not daring to break eye contact with the demon as he waited to see what he was going to unleash next.

Though his face was virtually emotionless, it could easily be inferred that Mephiles was not precisely amused with this battle any longer. Or, perhaps in his own sadistic way he actually still was. Without any expressive facial features, his emotions were hard to decipher. 

“You are quite the persistent annoyance, Shadow” Mephiles remarked, “But no matter, sooner or later, you will fall!”

Mephiles did not hesitate. Extending out his arms he began to command the lava surrounding the platform release nigh endless streams of piercing hot blue flames into the air, before the demon showed complete control over them; with the sheer power of his mind these streams curved towards Shadow and Omega as though they were flaming tentacles of some creature, proceeding to come at the two as though they were burning whips.

As it was futile to fire weapons at fire, Shadow and Omega settled for dodging and evading the literal whips of flame, though while it was easy to dodge the initial strikes - eventually massive blasts of blue fire came at them from behind while other streams of it rained down on them from above - forcing Shadow to do various acrobatic moves in order to avoid being burned. Flips both front and back, somersaults, he even narrowly avoided a stream that nearly struck him in his groin area. Omega was durable enough to stand a single blast - though even he knew the metal compromising his body had a limit at some point and so made a point to avoid the flames as well. He attempted to fire his missiles and even machine gun fire at Mephiles, though the demon often just used a single wave of blue flame to either melt the bullets or destroy the missiles before they could strike him.

Watching the battle unfold from the sidelines, Barry was lucky to seemingly be getting no attention from the demon. He decided it was best to use that fact to his advantage, and naturally rushed at Mephiles with the full force of his speed.

It didn’t last long, unfortunately.

It was as though his speed had just stopped. As though he was frozen in place, moments he could land a punch to Mephiles’ demonic face. As though he was parlyzed. Looking down he could see that underneath him was a puddle of pure darkness extending out from Mephiles - with the darkness latching onto the speedster’s feet as though it was engulfing him from the bottom-up, some of it looking as though black tentacles were wrapping around his muscular legs and thighs while moving slowly upwards to do the same with the rest of him.

The worst parts were both that he couldn’t vibrate himself out of their grasp, and that whatever this was it made it feel as though whatever they touched was numb - not hot or cold, only numb as though the limbs were asleep yet forced to be standing upright.

Barry could only struggle with his upper body as the lower half was slowly taken over by the darkness. Try as he did, he seemingly was fully unable to break free.

Without breaking from his fight against Shadow and Omega, Mephiles turned to Barry solely to mock him for his evidently failed attempt:

“Foolish mortal” the entity chuckled, “Did you honestly think that was going to work?”

Barry did not give Mephiles the dignity of a response. He only gritted his teeth, scowling, practically snarling even, at the demon who has put him through far more mental and emotional torment than Darkseid himself ever could have accomplished.

“No matter” the being continued on, “Soon it will be as though you had never even existed. It’s no use resisting, you can’t fight eternal darkness forever.”

With the darkness increasingly engulfing his body, now passing over his upper half, Barry only had one thing to tell the demonic entity:

“Go fuck yourself.”

Mephiles only laughed in response to that petty insult.

No longer willing to give himself up to the evil being, Barry continued to do all he could to struggle and fight the darkness consuming him - even though it’s continued engulfing of his body told him that it was in fact futile. Even as Mephiles’ mocking laughter was about all his ears actually heard.

At least until two other voices entered the fray:

“ _Initiating Zeta Energy Cannons!_ ”

“ _Chaos Spear!_ ”

In an instant, a single chaos spear managed to cut off the darkness engulfing Barry from Mephiles’ shadow, weakening it enough for Barry to finally break free of it as it dissipated from his body. Before Mephiles could even conjure up a counter-attack however, a duet of two massive, bright purple beams of weaponized energy fired onto him with enough force to actually send him back to the edge of the platform. 

Once the beams stopped firing, Shadow and Omega rejoined Barry’s side - having freed themselves from the onslaught of blue flames.

“Thanks, guys” Barry said to the two during this brief moment he had, “He almost had me there, for a moment.”

“Sensors indicate the target has not yet been neutralized, now is not time for idle chatter.” - Omega was swiftly proven rather correct.

Within an instant the ground shook in a line extending out from Mephiles as though a small earthquake was suddenly occurring before their eyes, making the three jump out of the way as tendrils made of darkness emerged from the cracks in the rock to violently attempt in grappling the three - though well timed chaos spears and missiles managed to keep the darkness at bay.

A large mass of darkness attempted to ensnarl Omega before long, though with a swipe of his arms with his flamethrowers initiated the robot was able to disperse the darkness before it could get a proper hold of him - he also continued supporting Shadow and Barry by using his missiles to disperse any of the black tentacles before they could grapple either of them.

As to be expected, that wasn’t the only hazard that Mephiles conjured for the trio as before long he spawned before him a series of telekinetically levitating spiked rocks with each encased in an aura of darkness, sending it at the three within a matter of moments to emulate Omega’s own missiles. 

With Omega handling the stream of darkness, Barry and Shadow had to divert their attention to these rock missiles - Barry was fast enough to evade them, though Mephiles conjured a thick wall of piercing blue flame and would send violent streams of it towards the speedster if he dared to try anything with his speed. Shadow was strong enough to home in on each in his ball form and shatter them to pieces, though the stream of them seemed to be endless.

Eventually however, Barry’s quick thinking mind came up with an idea: with Shadow taking the majority of the rock towers, he decided to use the wind vortexes created from his arm to blow away the blue fire protecting Mephiles. Just as Mephiles taken aback by this and hissed angrily at Barry upon being exposed, Barry shouted to his ally:

“Shadow! Opening! Now!”

Seeing as Mephiles was getting ready to unleash a stream of darkness on Barry, Shadow yet again no time to waste. He diverted his attention to diving from a mid-air position directly to Mephiles - who naturally realized what was going on and abandoned his attack on Barry to charge at Shadow, the two colliding in mid-air within a matter of seconds.

Mephiles quickly slashed at Shadow’s chest with his claws, drawing blood as well as making Shadow actually hiss in pain, though his other hand was caught by Shadow’s own before he could do the same to the ultimate lifeform’s face. Holding said hand by the wrist, Shadow did not give Mephiles any time to retaliate before punching the demon in his own chest at maximum strength - enough to send Mephiles barreling back to the ground below them.

The fact that punching Mephiles felt nearly like slamming his fist into a steel wall was not lost on Shadow.

With the stream of darkness dissipating, all three allies were able to surround Mephiles as he stood up to face them. Ever difficult to read, Mephiles grunted as he got up to face his adversaries - though it was hard to know if he felt defeated by them or not. Nevertheless, he did generate from one of his hands a large orb of dark energy - swirling vortex of black, blue and purple. At first the three assumed it was a final attack, though without saying a single word Mephiles leaped himself into it and vanished, just as the area all around them began to shake.

With the ground cracking and crumbling apart at the seams, the light of the blued magma shining from underneath as it bubbled up to the surface, Omega’s words were readily apparent well before he spoke them:

“I am indicating an eruption of this volcano is imminent, we must leave this area at once!”

Shadow nodded, and looking towards the portal Mephiles had generated he could see that as massive stacks of steam lava erupted from the floor that it was still there, yet diminishing in size quickly. 

“INTO THE PORTAL, NOW!” he yelled, himself Omega charging for it immediately. Barry was about to, but swiftly remembered Wally.

Just as Shadow and Omega jumped into the portal to follow Mephiles and escape the impending eruption, Barry swiftly rushed to Wally’s still unconscious body. Scooping his nephew up into his arms, he just as swiftly rushed into the portal mere moments before it vanished completely - just narrowly avoiding being caught in the volcano’s eruption, hearing the first few seconds of the final roar as the white flash of travelling through the portal took over his eyes.

When the bright lights of portal travel left him, Barry could see that he, Shadow, Omega and Wally had been transported back to Soleanna’s New City district, evidently the present time from which they left. They landed on a tiled plaza, with a large clock tower behind them and the various brick-and-mortar buildings that blended in with one another surrounding them. The solace in all of this was that the sky was yet again blue as they reflected the beauty of the ocean, and the clouds were white, joining the sun in the sky as it yet again shined down upon the world - though Barry did have to adjust to seeing sunlight again after spending so much time in darkness.

Speaking of which, there was no sign of Mephiles. Shadow looked around for the demon, but shook his head in frustration once it was apparent the dark entity was nowhere to be found. Omega summarized their situation as such:

“It appears that we have been transported back to the present, though Mephiles managed to transport himself to a different location. I will assist in pursuing him.”

Shadow nodded in response to that, though Omega was not the only one desiring to join the quest:

“So will I.” Barry proudly declared, wanting more than anything else to track down Mephiles and see him defeated. Though Shadow did not seem to disagree with the sentiment, he was swift to point out one glaring thing:

“First, you need to get your nephew proper medical treatment.”

Looking down at the unconscious boy in his arms, Barry closed his eyes and yet again shed a small tear from his eyes. Seeing Wally like that, fighting for his life, and the guilt that he was potentially who caused it, was almost too much for him. Turning to Shadow and Omega, Barry said:

“Where’s the nearest hospital?”

The voice Rouge descending into the conversation was ultimately what responded to that statement:

“Unfortunately, the Duke Arturo Memorial Hospital is already filled to maximum capacity” she stated as she landed with the rest of the group, “However, G.U.N. has finally been able to institute both a blockade and a no-fly-zone, thanks to a recent change in Soleanna’s leadership. We can take him to a med-bay on one of the ships, hopefully that will be enough.”

As Rouge talked to her communicator device to get G.U.N. clearance to one of the vessels now surrounding the border of Soleanna’s waters, Barry looked down onto his nephew and spoke softly to him in the vain hope that the boy could hear what he was being told:

“It’s alright Wally, we’re gonna get you help. You’re gonna be back up and running in no time, just trust me, alright bud? We’re gonna get you back up faster than I can even run! Promise!”

Of course, Barry knew that Wally was not the _only_ one who needed some form of medical help. Though, he wasn’t sure if there was _anything_ that could be done to fix all of his problems at this point.

Not after what he had just been through.


	8. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, Shadow, Rouge, Omega and Wally group together on a G.U.N. Aircraft Carrier, where Barry learns that he is on a brutally important time crunch and Shadow investigates more into the origins of Mephiles and the scepter of darkness. Ultimately the group has to split up due to Shadow's need to confront a certain roboticist and Barry's need to seek supernatural medical care.

_Omega? What’s he doing here?_

_It seems he’s in standby mode…_

_What could have possibly happened to create this future?...Yes, this is Rouge...Understood, we’ll be there in a minute. It looks like Sonic and his friends have found something too, we should go…it's not like we can do anything for him now…_

_...Yeah…_

* * *

_Shadow?...Shadow!...Shadow...and he doesn’t have a chaos emerald anymore..._

_Agent Rouge? Report your status immediately! Have you retrieved the scepter of darkness?_

_Well...I’ll provide a full report shortly, right now I have a priority situation to deal with; I need to contact E-123 Omega immediately!_

* * *

_This is a charming little place!...Hi! Long time no see!_

_Rouge, the bat...._

* * *

_Situation understood, what would you like me to do?_

_Take this, and deliver it to Shadow!_

_System reactivation countdown initiated. Backup power source and spare magazines secured. Command program priority changed, new mission: Shadow Support. External access is no longer permitted. Confirmed._

_I’m counting on you!_

* * *

“So, you found Omega in the Soleanna forest?”

“Well, it was really more of a jungle, but yes.”

Reunited with the green emerald which he now held in his hand again, Shadow stood before Rouge and E-123 Omega within the medical bay of the U.F.S. _Thomas Kalinske_. Designated CVN-91, the seaborne vessel was the largest aircraft carrier in the entire GUN naval fleet and at the present time sat along the deep, blue waters of the ocean with a massive size of approximately 400 meters in sheer length alone. Across the top of it’s massive metallic body were numerous aircrafts ranging from standard military jets to attack helicopters and even more advanced, futuristic style aircrafts that served as more advanced forms of jets. There were also equally numerous military robots on the deck of the massive ship as well, with varying shapes ranging from angular vaguely humanoid machines that resembled thin armor, to similar though far more bulky builds, as well as flying machines that were usually referred to as ‘beetles’ though aside from a dome-like top and their flying status didn’t resemble beetles much; even these had larger and more intimidating variants. The robots themselves were either in an active state providing protection for the fleet or otherwise in an inactive state.

Around the ‘Kalinske’ were various other GUN branded naval vessels, ranging from standard brands of battleships to gargantuan ships used to supply fuel to the aerial fleet if need be, to even similar yet smaller aircraft carriers. Above the vessel was a small fleet of GUN’s massive aerial ships, a relatively recent sight to behold in the world’s skies - massive, armed flying vessels that while designed akin to large blocks were just as dangerous as the ships of Eggman’s own aerial fleet; the ones they were made to compete with. There were enough vessels both naval and aerial to completely surround the borders of Soleanna’s waterways.

As impressive as the sight was, ‘Team Dark’ as they were called didn’t take much time to view it as such. Instead, they were gathered in a hallway outside one of the Kalinske’s medical rooms and completely surrounded by walls, tied floors and ceilings of bright white only broken by metallic benches to sit on, or by various objects such as clipboards, doors to other halls and rooms of the ship, or otherwise either fire extinguishers or emergency medical kits.

Standing in the hallway were Shadow, Rouge and Omega - with Rouge and Omega getting Shadow up to speed with the events that had transpired during his ‘absence’ from the present time. Barry was meanwhile switching rapidly between sitting on one of the cold, metallic benches and trying to gaze through the glass window of the door to see how his nephew, Wally, was doing in the room that they were in front of. All the while, the same phrase of words repeated in his head on loop:

_Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay, please be okay…._

It didn’t take long for the other three to notice Barry’s rapid pacing and switching of places, and with sympathy in her voice Rouge addressed him:

“It’s okay Barry, your nephew’s in good hands, I’m sure he’ll make a full recovery.”

Barry paused at what she said - he had just sped over to yet again place his hands on the glass ‘window’ of the door to Wally’s room, desperately looking for any sign that he was okay. Looking back over to these three newest allies of his, he silently nodded. He would have said something, but he quickly felt that there was nothing he honestly had to say about any of this.

Team Dark themselves were about as silent as well - Omega had nothing to add, while Rouge was also at a loss for words. Shadow however, though he felt sympathy for Barry’s current situation he knew there were things that he needed answers for. With a folding his arms, he said to the Flash:

“Perhaps you can in the meantime, supply us with a few answers?”

“Answers?” Barry asked, looking to Shadow, “Answers to what?”

“You’re not from this timeline, are you?”

Barry bowed his head, looking at the floor. Responding to the notion that Wally would recover was difficult enough, now he was faced with explaining the flashpoint situation. Looking back up at Shadow, he forced himself to progress:

“Actually, I am” he explained, “Except, also I’m not. It’s difficult to explain, but as far as I know I am the one who created this timeline.”

Shadow, Rouge and Omega all seemed perplexed by his words - though all remained silent in allowing Barry to continue explaining the situation to them/. Once he realized that, Barry continued:

“There have been at least four timelines I’ve been a part of so far including this one. In the first one, I went back in time using my speed to stop my mother from dying - for some reason doing that changed not only my mother’s fate but also virtually everything else about the history of the world I lived in, ultimately making the world end in disaster. Then I went back in time again to stop myself, creating a third timeline that started out with so much promise but again ended in complete disaster. I had to watch these, Paradoom monsters literally slaughter and eat my own friends and family. There was nothing we could do….we lost….the world was doomed even after we got rid of him...and, so I had no choice but to create this timeline…”

“Paradooms?” Shadow asked, “Was Black Doom part of your previous timeline?”

“No” Barry shook his head, “They were creations of Darkseid, though I can see why you’d assume Black Doom made them.”

“Darkseid?”

“He was kind of like Black Doom, in the sense that he was an alien invader, but he was much, _much_ harder to defeat. Took literally all that we had, just about.”

“I, see…”

“I, I’m sorry…”

“For what, Barry?” Rouge asked curiously, “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, you just said it yourself that you had no choice.”

“Because if I hadn’t created the previous ‘flashpoint’, Mephiles wouldn’t exist.”

Upon Barry saying that, there was a pause between the four with only the sound of ticking clocks and the distant sounds of other things going on aboard the ship supplying ambience. All four of them contemplated Barry’s words, until with a bow of his head Shadow addressed Barry’s words accordingly:

“No, I don’t think that’s true” Shadow said to the stunned and curious Barry, “Mephiles has the ability to time travel as well, and does in ways that makes it appear as though time obeys him rather than resists him. Based on his awareness of your previous timeline and him having your nephew enthralled, there’s reason to believe he had been meddling in your previous timelines anyway. I might not be able to prove it, but based on what I have seen of him, I wouldn’t eliminate it as an answer.”

“So, you’re, you’re saying that…

“I’m saying that your theory might not be as correct as it seems to.”

“How long did he have that poor kid trapped with him?” Rouge interjected, still having a tone of sympathy in her voice for Wally, “Was he in your previous timelines?”

“Well, yeah” Barry nodded, “He was part of the Teen Titans at one point...poor kids...but, then after he left the team, he vanished at one point. His parents too. Eventually I….” that’s when it hit him. His eyes yet again widened as he held one of his hands to his head, shock overcoming him as the realization came through; “I forgot about him...like he never existed at all…I don’t even understand how that’s possible….”

_At first, I assumed the Paradooms had gotten him like everyone else...._

_But now...I remember…._

“At some point during that period of time” Shadow reasoned, “Mephiles must have intervened in the previous timeline and done something to capture him, keeping him enthralled until our confrontation with him.”

“What about his parents though?”

“Were they among those we fought?”

“No.”

Shadow said nothing in response to that, he did not want to state any of his theories about their fates in particular. However, since Iris had confirmed they exist in the current timeline on their first night in Soleanna, Barry wasn’t concerned for them so much he was the others:

“What happened to the others then? The ones we did fight? Were they ‘enthralled’ too? Or….”

Shadow shook his head, trying to address Barry in the most careful way that he possibly could have:

“Seeing as how they vanished into clouds of darkness while only your nephew was broken free, I don’t think it was actually them. However, I don’t know for sure.”

The thought it actually had been his friends, family and allies that they had fought against in that hellish future made him bow his head - yet again finding himself holding back a tear from running down his face. The thought that it might not have been them made him able to resist it, though there was no denying that even if it was really them - at the very least there would be a _chance_.

As if realizing this, Rouge was quick to offer Barry another bout of reassurance:

“If your friends are still there” she said, placing a hand onto Barry’s shoulder, “I’m sure we’ll find a way to bring them back out of Mephiles’ control, perhaps all we have to do to do that is to defeat Mephiles!”

Barry looked up at Rouge and responded to the female bat with a soft smile and a nod. He didn’t have anything to really say in response. All that was heard in response was a pair of footsteps walking along the tiled floor, with Rouge, Omega and Barry looking to see Shadow walking away from them without saying so much of a word. It was naturally Rouge who addressed him:

“Shadow? Where are you going off to?”

Turning to them, Shadow explained:

“I’m going to access the G.U.N. archives about the Scepter of Darkness, the artifact that started all of this.”

With that having been said, Shadow continued on his way, Rouge placing her hands on her hips. Just before she and the other two could have joined him, the door to Wally’s medical bay room opened, with one of the nurses stepping out:

“The doctor says it is alright to step in now” the nurse, a female ‘anthro’ white-tail deer with light pink scrubs, stated. Though he wanted to learn more about Mephiles, Barry rushed into the room the moment that he heard the news without so much of a second thought, with Rouge deciding to follow after him - though Omega decided to quietly follow Shadow instead.

The room was just like that of a hospital room, kept cold and sterile, with curtains to separate patients from one another and beds usually close to various medical technology. Barry did not pay attention to anything other than the fact that his young nephew was laying in a hospital bed with a monitor showing the beating of his heart, tubes stuck into his veins. Seeing it horrified him, but he made sure that he was immediately at Wally’s side. With a deep breathe and the holding back of tears, Barry could see that Wally’s eyes had yet again opened - looking right at his uncle, the boy only softly stuttered as he processed who was beside him:

“U-Uncle B-Barry?”

“Yes Wall, it’s me” Barry said, a tearful smile on his face as he held his nephew’s hand, “I’m here. I told you we’d get you back up and running.”

“Where, where am I?”

The doctor, a middle-aged yet still quite pleasing to the eyes dark-skinned human woman with black curled hair, explained in a soft and empathetic voice:

“You’re in the medical bay of the U.F.S. Thomas Kalinske. You were in critical condition when you arrived, but you recovered remarkably fast, at first I thought you would be in a catatonic state for weeks, if not months.”

“Heh” Wally softly chuckled, a smirk on his face, “Well, fast-healing runs in the family.”

Barry couldn’t help but join his nephew in smirking, saying to the teen:

“It’s good to have you back, Kid.” and of course he followed that statement with a tight hug as well, more than thrilled to finally have his nephew back in a conscious state. However, once the hug was separated, Wally took note of Rouge who was also present in the room. It was then that he repeated his question:

“Where...am I?”

As Barry looked at the floor and realized it was time for yet another explanation, Rouge gestured for the doctor and the nurse to leave the room, to which they both nodded and complied with. Though Rouge stayed in the room, she remained silent as Barry did his best to calmly explain the situation to his nephew:

“This going to be hard to explain to you, Wall, but, do you remember anything about the previous timeline?”

“Previous, timeline?”

“Yeah” Barry nodded, “We’re in a new timeline, created by a ‘flashpoint’ that I created by travelling in time. Things are a fair bit stranger here than what we’re both used to but the best thing to do is to just get used to that. All I need to know right now, is how much of the previous timeline you remember, you were on the Teen Titans?”

Suddenly, Wally’s eyes widened. He sat up, though had to hold his head as he did so - his uncle watching him closely and carefully. With some groans, Wally turned back to Barry and explained:

“I, I do....I was” he nodded.

“Then what happened?” Barry asked, a hand on Wally’s shoulder, “All I remember now is you vanishing without a trace, and then something made us all forget you as if you never even existed. What is the last thing you remember?”

“You forgot I existed?”

“Yes, but it wasn’t our choice” Barry replied, “It was time correcting itself after whatever made you vanish, and that’s what I want to know, if you remember. It’s okay if you don’t, alright buddy?”

With a deep breath, Wally tried to remember. Both Barry and Rouge remained in silence as he did. Looking at his lap in the hospital bed, Wally closed his eyes and tried with all his might to remember - even straining himself slightly at one point. It was when he yet again opened his eyes to look at Barry that he said:

“All I remember is that we were fighting some guy called the Zookeeper, this scientist guy who had given himself Beast Boy’s powers but was some real evil jerk. Last I remember we had him pretty well beaten, he had Beast Boy matched but between Me, Robin, Starfire, Bumblebee and Speedy we had him outmatched and outclassed. That’s when it hit me.”

“What hit you?” Barry asked, with Rouge quietly nearing the two to hear more of this as Wally explained:

“I...I don’t know. One second I was in the fight, and the next all I could see was a bright white light, after that….just a bunch of...shapes, figures. It was like I was in space, but there were no stars. There was this man, at least I think it was a man, he looked human anyway. Then, two other figures just slammed directly into him. After that, I was caught in some massive explosion, I tried to run away but before I knew it - I blacked out…..then I woke up…”

“You mean....”

“No, first, I woke up in that same dark void I was in before” Wally explained, though he had a look of slight terror on his face as he explained this part, “Except, it wasn’t just some void anymore, it was….moving. It was some kind of...being….”

“Mephiles…”

“Mephiles?”

“You woke up in Mephiles’ grasp, Wally” Barry explained to the boy, “Besides the fact he’s evil, we don’t know what he is, but from what I’ve seen it’s pretty obvious he’s a demon.”

Wally smirked and nodded in response to that, snarking:

“Thanks, captain obvious” as Barry laughed, Wally continued on, “But yeah, I blacked out again not long after waking up. Last thing I saw were some other people trapped in the same situation as me.”

Both Rouge and Barry were surprised to hear his statement, Barry perhaps even more so than Rouge as he quickly addressed it:

“There were others? Who were they?”

“They weren’t anyone that I remember” Wally remarked, “It’s hard to remember their faces, but I recall red, and green; I’m not sure if it was Robin or not but it clearly wasn’t the bro I remembered. I also remember seeing what looked like the ‘S’ that Superman had on his chest, but all I know is that it wasn’t Superman wearing it - and there were others too but everything gets hazy at that point. I don’t remember who they were...I’m sorry.”

_Damian….Conner...._

“My god…” Barry commented, mouth almost agap, “So, the others, they are?”

“I don’t know...I didn’t get to see any of them very long, or very clearly. Before I knew it, everything was pitch black until I woke up here.”

“I, see…”

“Is anyone else?”

“Well, there’s me, Iris, your folks, our family is still in this timeline somehow but as for anyone else, no” Barry shook his head sadly as he delivered this news to his nephew, “I’m sorry.”

Wally bowed his head at the realization that none of his friends existed in this timeline - Dick, Kori, Roy, Karen, Garfield. All of them gone, as far as he and Barry were aware. Either under a demonic being’s ‘enthrallment’ or otherwise non-existent. Neither option brought them much hope. The only silver lining Barry could think of about his nephew’s situation was that the boy did not have to witness how the previous timeline ended, and felt it was best for now that he didn’t know. He did not want to burden his nephew with the memories that he had. Suffering with them alone was for the best, as painful as it was.

Still, with silence yet again overtaking the room it was Rouge who decided to break the silence, placing a hand to Barry’s shoulder as he and Wally silently mourned those that were seemingly lost to time:

“It’s alright” she said, “It’s possible that your friends are just ordinary people in this timeline, perhaps we will be able to locate them after we deal with Mephiles, and if he has them under his control, then we can free them.”

Barry and Wally both calmly nodded in response to Rouge’s words, neither of them having anything to really say to them other than the fact they agreed with what she had said and appreciated her reassurance that they still had things to hope for. For the two of them, this was one of their darker hours - the prospect that all of the friends they had spent years making were gone forever, and Wally himself didn’t even know what hell they had been through prior to his arrival in the new timeline. Barry still did not want him to ever have to know.

Ultimately, Wally was the one who broke the solemn silence:

“So, am I good enough to get out of this bed, or what?”

“Oh” Rouge remarked, “Based on what the doctor said, I’m sure you’re good to go, sweetie.”

“Well, in that case-”

Just as Wally was ready to rush out of the bed, both him and Rouge were distracted by Barry letting out a pained groan, holding his head as yet another blistering headache flared up - complete with his eyes yet again flashing bright purple. Wally still rushed out of his bed, though this time it was directly to his uncle’s side with a concerned look to his face:

“Uncle Barry? Uncle Barry, you okay?!”

“Ugh” Barry groaned, struggling to speak due to the sheer intensity of his latest headache, “I’ve been getting these on and off, ugh, since I got my powers back...they won’t, go...away.”

“We should get the doctor back in here” Rouge responded, also nearing Barry’s side. Wally nodded, and without saying any further words left the room using his own super speed to locate the doctor, or any doctor really. Rouge stayed by Barry’s side, though admittedly Barry himself didn’t look forward to whatever it was his diagnosis would be.

* * *

Elsewhere on the Kalinske, Shadow the Hedgehog and Omega stood before a large computer monitor, within a room solely dedicated to said large monitor, the desk it stood upon, the actual computer proper, and the keyboard used to operate it. Without saying any words, Shadow typed the appropriate characters into the keyboard as Omega watched both him and the computer’s monitor:

_ACCESSING GUARDIAN UNITS OF NATIONS DATA ARCHIVES_

_GUARDIAN UNITS OF NATIONS IDENTITY REQUIRED_

_PERFORMING RETINAL SCAN IDENTIFICATION_

_GUARDIAN UNITS OF NATIONS IDENTITY CONFIRMED, ACCESS GRANTED_

_SEARCHING DATA ARCHIVES FOR ENTRIES PERTAINING TO ‘SCEPTER OF DARKNESS’...._

_DATA ARCHIVES LOCATED_

With the data archives pertaining to the scepter loaded, Shadow proceeded to go through as many of them as he could. There weren’t very many of them, only about a handful of individual files. From what he and Omega read from what was available, there wasn’t much that could honestly be explained about the scepter either. The text describing the scepter was accompanied by multiple images of it, though Shadow already remembered it’s appearance well - a relatively small scepter, very ornate in its appearance as it appeared to be well carved marble swirling around a translucent crystal, with two ‘bulbs’ on either end. The top bulb had a crown upon it and was fashioned between to carefully carved angelic wings and was broken from the translucent material briefly by ‘handle’ of opulently decorated marble, while the bulb on the bottom was pure marble and had abstract yet high class decorative carvings. Normally, the translucent crystal had, as in the images, a filling of glowing and practically ominous black and purple energy that gave the scepter its name. Shadow now knew well what that ‘darkness’ inside of it actually was.

_DARKNESS; SCEPTER OF_

_ORIGIN: SOLEANNA, SOLEANNA_

_DESIGNATION: OBJECT_

_CREATION DATE: UNDETERMINED_

_PRIMARY USAGE: UNDETERMINED_

_KNOWN USAGES: ROYAL REGALIA_

_ABILITIES: DISRUPTION OF TECHNOLOGY; MANIPULATION OF FEAR_

_SUMMARY: THE SCEPTER OF DARKNESS WAS FIRST SEEN IN USE AS ROYAL REGALIA FOR THE SOLEANNA MONARCHY PRIOR TO THE FORMATION OF THE GUARDIAN UNITS OF NATIONS, AND WAS USED AS A WEAPON AGAINST INVADERS OF SOLEANNA DUE TO IT’S APPARENT ABILITY TO DISRUPT SEEMINGLY ANY AND ALL TECHNOLOGY AND CREATE ILLUSIONS BASED UPON ONE’S FEARS. IT’S EXACT CREATION DATE HAS NOT BEEN DETERMINED NEITHER BY G.U.N. NOR BY SOLEANNA, DUE TO THE SCEPTER’S TENDENCY TO CAUSE MALFUNCTIONS TO ANY TECHNOLOGY WHICH IT TOUCHES. IT’S MOST FAMOUS USE WAS AGAINST AN INVADING ARMY OF THE GREAT PEOPLE’S COMMUNION DURINGTHE COMMUNE’S WAR TO INSTALL A PUPPET REGIME OVER THE NATION, IN WHICH THE SCEPTER MANAGED TO COMPLETELY DISABLE THE WEAPONRY & VEHICLES OF THE INVADING ARMY WHILE FROM THEN ON SENDING THE INVADING SOLDIERS INTO FITS OF MASS HYSTERIA, PREVENTING THE CONQUEST OF SOLEANNA. THIS HUMILIATING DEFEAT PLAYED A ROLE IN THE COMMUNE’S COLLAPSE A YEAR LATER. APPROXIMATELY SIXTEEN YEARS LATER, DURING THE BLACK ARMS INVASION, SOLEANNA WAS ONE OF THE FEW COUNTRIES NOT SEVERELY IMPACTED BY THE BLACK ARMS FORCES, THOUGH COMMUNICATION WITH THE CITY-STATE WAS OFFLINE FOR THE ENTIRE DURATION OF THE INVASION. SOLEANNA OFFICIALS CLAIM THAT THE SCEPTER HAS SOME FORM OF CONSCIOUSNESS OR SENTIENCE, THOUGH THIS HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED WITH EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE. THE SCEPTER WAS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE SOLEANNA ROYAL FAMILY UNTIL RECENTLY, WHEN AN UNDETERMINED INSIDER SOLD IT TO IVO ROBOTNIK OFF OF THE BLACK MARKET FOR UNKNOWN PURPOSES. A G.U.N. TEAM WAS SENT TO INVESTIGATE ROBOTNIK’S OUTPOST IN THE MOUNTAINS OF SOLEANNA AND RETRIEVE THE SCEPTER, THOUGH THIS WAS SUCCESS, THE SCEPTER WAS LATER REPORTED LOST AFTER THE TEAM ENTERED THE KINGDOM VALLEY AREA: CLAIMING A SENTIENT BEING KNOWN AS ‘MEPHILES’ EMERGED FROM THE NOW INACTIVE SCEPTER. FILE ON MEPHILES STILL BEING PROCESSED. _

“Hmph” reading this, Shadow could only let out that signature huff of his. Most of this was information he had only known, when it wasn’t information reiterating he and Rouge’s botched mission to retrieve the scepter from Dr. Eggman. Very little of it was information that he hadn’t been briefed on before he had been sent on the mission, and what wasn’t was information that was easily inferrable on his part.

However, his interest did begin to shift when he found one file in particular:

_SCEPTER OF DARKNESS: HISTORICAL RECORDS_

_REPORTS OF AN OBJECT KNOWN AS ‘THE SCEPTER OF DARKNESS’ HAVE BEEN PRESENT IN AND AROUND THE REGION OF SOLEANNA SINCE ANCIENT TIMES. IN SOLEANNA’S ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY, IT WAS BELIEVED THAT THE SCEPTER WAS CREATED DURING A WAR BETWEEN DEITIES, KNOWN AS ‘INFINEMBELLI’, AND WAS USED TO ENTRAP THE ‘SPIRIT OF DARKNESS’. IT’S CREATOR VARIES BETWEEN VARIATIONS OF THE MYTH, THOUGH IT’S PURPOSE OF ENTRAPPING A BEING PERSONIFYING DEATH, EVIL, ANARCHY AND ALL OF SENTIENT LIFE’S INNER DARKNESS REMAINS CONSTANT THROUGH ALL RECORDED VERSIONS. IT WAS ALSO BELIEVED THAT THE SCEPTER HAD SOME CONNECTION TO THE ‘FLAMES OF DISASTER’, WHICH OPPOSED THE ‘FLAMES OF CREATION’ THAT IN MYTHOLOGY CREATED THE DUSTY DESERT REGION WHICH FORMED THE ORIGINAL CENTER OF SOLEANNA’S ANCIENT CIVILIZATION. IT WAS BELIEVED THAT SOLARIS USED THE FLAMES OF CREATION TO CREATE THE WORLD CENTERED AROUND SOLEANNA’S VAST DESERT, WHILE HE USES THE FLAMES OF DISASTER TO POSSESS VARIOUS INDIVIDUALS THROUGHOUT TIME - USUALLY BELIEVED TO TEMPT THESE INDIVIDUALS INTO CAUSING MASS DISORDER THROUGHOUT CIVILIZATION, WITH THESE INDIVIDUALS USUALLY APPEARING IN VARIOUS LEGENDS AND MYTHS AS DESIRING THE SCEPTER OF DARKNESS FOR VARIOUS REASONINGS. SOLEANNA’S ORIGINAL DUKE, THOUGH HIGHLY MYTHOLOGIZED, WAS SAID TO HAVE RISEN FROM THE SEA AND TAMED THE FLAMES OF DISASTER AND MAINTAINED HIS INNER GOODNESS, AND MANAGED TO ACQUIRE THE SCEPTER OF DARKNESS - MAINTAINING THE MONARCHY AS A TESTAMENT TO THE WILLPOWER OF ONE’S INNER GOOD AND THE ROLE OF THE MONARCHY AS PROTECTING SOLEANNA’S PEOPLE. THE SCEPTER OF DARKNESS HAS BEEN REPORTED AS WITHIN THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SOLEANNA’S POSSESSION SINCE THIS EVENT, UNTIL RELATIVELY RECENTLY FOLLOWING RECENT REPORTS FROM G.U.N. AGENTS. IT HAS NOT BEEN DETERMINED YET HOW MUCH OF SOLEANNA’S MYTHOLOGY IS ACCURATE TO ACTUAL HISTORY._

“Hm” Shadow mumbled as he read and processed this information, still figuring out for himself how precisely this would be useful in his battle against the dark being. With the original scepter being long gone, there didn’t seem to be a readily available method of sealing Mephiles, and not even Soleanna’s ancient mythology seemed to offer much in the way of an explanation. Shadow curled a fist in slight irritation at how pointless all of this seemed.

Just as this effort seemed pointless, Shadow and Omega were joined by a third voice entering the room from behind them:

“Looking for information pertaining to the Scepter of Darkness, I see?”

Shadow and Omega quickly turned to face the source of the feminine yet aged voice speaking to them, and found it to be an elderly woman with notable wrinkles on her forehead, beneath her eyes, and along her cheeks and neck. Somewhat overweight, the old caucasian human woman had her silver hair in a thick bouffant, and was dressed in a dark-colored skirted set of military attire - a blazer-esque coat, skirt, and boots - complete with many decorated medals denoting her status as a highly respected member of G.U.N. 's military force. Of course, Omega’s silent identification scan confirmed that:

“Identity scan confirms you as Gretchen Goode, former Guardian Units of Nations commander, current status being retired.”

“That is correct” the former commander said with a nod, “You can put your guard down now, agents.”

Shadow did comply with her suggestion and dropped his battle stance along with Omega, though being that he was Shadow he was always ready to enter it again if need be. He was however, the first to ask questions:

“What are you doing here if you are retired?”

“Oh, it’s really more like _semi_ -retirement, really” she explained, “With how serious the current operation is, I'm overseeing this blockade. I just happened to be in the area, and yes Commander Tower does happen to know I am here, before you ask.”

“Hmph.”

“You also have an interest in the scepter of darkness?” Omega said, interjecting the conversation, “Do you know any important information pertaining to it?”

“There’s not a whole lot to say about the subject” Goode explained bluntly, “The majority of its history is wrapped tightly in Soleanna’s ancient mythology, and with how much _that_ changed over the course of history good luck making sense of it. In general, the scepter supposedly contains a sentient being of pure darkness, a being so sinister that even the most reprehensible demons would fall to their knees in reverence of the ‘dark lord’.”

“Mephiles…” Shadow couldn’t help but utter the being’s name. Goode naturally had heard this utterance:

“So, I take it that the being has been released?”

“Yes, ma’am” Shadow begrudgingly responded, “Robotnik intruded on our rendezvous in the Kingdom Valley, indirectly resulting in the scepter falling to the ground and releasing that sentient being inside of it - it calls itself Mephiles.”

Shadow would have mentioned that he had chosen to save Rouge from free falling after getting struck by Eggman’s egg mobile, though he decided that detail was better left out. Besides, he still wasn’t entirely sure if Goode was entirely trustable - there was something about the look in her eyes and on her face that put Shadow off, though he wasn’t sure what it was. Nevertheless, Goode didn’t seem to let him have much time to ponder it:

“Mephiles, hm? That is quite an interesting choice of name, and from what Soleanna’s mythology states, is quite fitting for the personification of all that is darkness.”

Shadow perked up one of his brows at what Goode said of Mephiles, though decided not to address it directly. Instead, he decided to be a bit more blunt with what it was he needed from her:

“Is there anything you can tell me about the scepter of darkness, ma’am?” he said respectfully, “Or about Mephiles, if possible?”

“Well, most of what we know would be in those archives” she explained, “Tough of course, most of the scepter’s history has become one with mythology, making it rather irrelevant to speak of. There are similar tales from across the world, in all honesty. Talk of a giant clash between gods, a giant explosion across the universe that created our planet as it is now, sending down upon it both light and darkness. In most, they are in eternal conflict - though in Chun-nan it is an eternal effort at reunification, to recover the power that was lost from the great separation.”

As Shadow listened to every word that the semi-retired woman said, he couldn’t help but feel as though there was something ominous about everything. He wasn’t quite sure he believed what she was saying to be factual history, though applying it to what Barry told him made him ponder if there was a connection to these legends and the ‘flashpoint’ Barry claims to have made. There wasn’t much time before Goode continued with words that caught Shadow off guard however:

“As for finding information about the scepter, I would suggest you go after Robotnik. We have reports of robotic activity around the old soleanna train tracks, evidently with his battleship grounded he’s found a new manner of transportation. From what we’ve gathered from intercepting their chatter, they appear to be looking for you - though, I have reason to assume that it’s not precisely _you_ that they are after. Considering he was the previous holder of the scepter, perhaps he has information about that we currently don’t.”

Upon hearing those words, Shadow’s first thought was to nod. However, as she began to walk away there, multiple things went through his mind. Many questions he had for her, with two being the most prominent:

_How does she know that Mephiles looks like me....and...is the commander from when, I was..._

He approached her as she left the room, the sound of his feet clanging on the metallic floor. Hearing it, she stopped and turned around just as she was in the frame of the room’s door.

“Is there something else you need, Agent?” she asked, an eyebrow raised.

Shadow, never one to be easily afraid, bluntly asked at least one of the two questions he had. The one that he quickly came to desire an answer for the most:

“Ma’am, may I ask if you were the G.U.N. Commander during the time that the ARK was operational?”

Her response was just as blunt:

“I’m afraid that information is classified, my dear.”

That having been said, she proceeded to completely leave the room - the sound of her footsteps going down through the hall until they left Shadow’s earshot - letting the ambience of ventilation fans and the running of a computer take their place. That said, Shadow had a suspicious glare with the answer he received - and was suspicious enough to turn to Omega, who responded accordingly:

“My research into her tenure as G.U.N. Commander confirms that she was, in fact, commander during your designated time frame. However, I was unable to access any files pertaining to the Space Colony ARK itself.”

Nodding, Shadow responded gratefully:

“Thank you Omega” and with that done, he got straight to business, “I’ll look more into that after we take care of Mephiles.”

“Affirmative.”

* * *

  
  


Back in the medical bay of the ship, it was now Barry who rested on a hospital bed while both Rouge and Wally waited for the doctor’s diagnosis outside. Hooked up to the monitor displaying his heartbeat while the doctor performed scans and tests on him, his heart rate became intense - as did the tapping of his feet. Both far surpassed even the fastest hare or roadrunner. The idea that the diagnosis would be something dreadfully awful didn’t make his nerves any calmer, either.

“This will only take a minute, just relax.” the doctor told him, before he pulled out a handheld device and used it to scan Barry’s entire body with what appeared to be some form of infrared sensor. Though he wasn’t entirely sure that’s what it actually was.

Within a few short seconds, the scanning was completed. Barry took a deep breathe as the doctor looked at the results of the scan, and couldn’t help but ask her with a concerned tone of voice:

“What’s the prognosis, doc?”

After a moment of silence, the doctor responded to him in what sounded as though she was gravely concerned by the results she had received: 

“It appears that you have zeta chaos energy all over your system” she explained with her brows curled in a show of sympathy to the speedster. Barry of course, had no idea what she was talking about:

“Zeta chaos energy? What’s that mean?”

“I’ll have to perform some tests to confirm, but, well, I’ll get back to you when the tests are finished.”

Before Barry could even ask further questions, both the doctor and the nurse exited the room. The shocked looks on their faces did not sit well with the speedster, even as he was rejoined in the room by both Rouge and Wally the second the doctor was gone. Without any hesitation, Wally rushed to his uncle’s bedside and spoke to him:

“Unc, is somethin’ wrong? The doc looked spooked and was in a hurry, what’s goin’ on?”

“I don’t know, kid” Barry shook his head, looking just as concerned about things as his nephew, “She said something about my body having ‘Zeta chaos energy’ all over it, and I have no idea what that means.”

“What’s ‘zeta chaos energy’?”

In response to this nephew, Barry only shrugged. However, Rouge had a concerned look to her face once she processed the information for herself. It can best be said that she dreaded the moment when Barry and Wally turned to her, with Barry saying to her:

“You know what any of that means, Rouge?”

With a deep breath, Rouge turned to Barry with a visibly distraught yet also tranquil look to her face as she explained to him:

“The best way that I can put this, is that there are many different ‘types’ of chaos energy that come from the chaos emeralds and the master emerald, each of them usually appearing as the color of that particular emerald. Alpha and Beta are Green, Gamma is White, Delta is Blue, Epsilon is Yellow, Omega is Red, Eta is Cyan, and Zeta is Purple.”

“Okay…” Barry responded, “And what is it about Zeta chaos energy that makes it spook people so much?”

“Well, it’s not so much the energy itself as much, what it does” Rouge said with a heavy heart, “You see, zeta chaos energy is one of the more unstable forms. If your body hasn’t adjusted to being around chaos energy in general yet, well…” she then took another deep breath as she struggled to tell the words, having to look away from Barry.

“What happens?” Wally asked, his eyes widening with greater concern.

“There was a man, a Hedgehog”, Rouge replied, still not looking at Barry directly in order to make it easier for herself, “His name was Sir Ogivilie Charles O’Hedge. It was a few hundred years ago, but he was the first person to recover the purple chaos emerald after the fall of the ancient echidna civilization. His usage of the emerald exposed it to its energy, and resulted in his entire body becoming a generator for chaos energy, overloading every cell and organ in his body until they began to shut down one by one...eventually killing him. To this day, we refer to it as Ogilvie Syndrome.”

With widened eyes, both Barry and Wally looked to her as they processed the information. Already assuming the worst based on her and the doctor’s facial expressions and distressed moods, Barry knew that what he said next was all but outright pointless:

“What….what are you saying?”

Rouge turned to Barry, though the look on her face didn’t change. She did not visibly cry, though the expression she had on presented that she wasn’t far from it. Wally though, did shed a few tears - though he still refused to believe what was being suggested to him. Barry was much the same, with both of them shaking their heads. As Barry closed his eyes and placed a hand to his forehead in contemplation, Wally refused to believe the mere idea alone:

“No, no...it can’t be...you don’t know if-”

Wally was stopped when the Doctor stepped into the room with the nurse behind her. In her hands was a clipboard with the test results printed out. The tone in her voice was soft and almost as though she did not want to say what she was obligated to at all. She ultimately said the last thing any of them had wanted to hear:

“Mr. Allen, I’m sorry....”

* * *

When Shadow and Omega returned to the medical bay to reunite with Shadow and Rouge, they found all three of the others gathered in the hospital room - with Barry locked in a completely stunned expression, Wally right beside him and appearing as though he was already grieving a deceased relative. There was nothing being said between them, because by this time there wasn’t much that hadn’t been said. Rouge turned to face Shadow and Omega as they walked into the room, and with the doctor gone it was Rouge who explained to a curious Shadow:

“Barry’s been diagnosed with ogilvie syndrome...still coming to terms with it.”

Neither nor Shadow nor Omega said anything, for neither knew what to say. Shadow just looked at Barry in silence, however he was feeling sympathy for him as he came to terms with his terminal illness. 

“That bastard…” Barry remarked, anger overcoming his shock as he remembered how he regained his powers, “Mephiles, that damn bastard…” looking up to the others, he explained his revelation; “He used that chaos emerald to give me back my powers, tricking me into trusting him, getting me to almost do his dirty work...even if I had succeeded, he was probably just gonna dump me somewhere and leave me to die.”

Wally pounded his fist on part of the hospital bed in anger, fuming with rage as the realization his uncle’s impending fate set in. He had only been restored to proper existence for less than a day, and already things were going wrong for him.

“When I find that asshole-” Wally hissed, but Barry placing a hand onto his shoulder calmed him for a moment, with the older man saying to him:

“Kid, it’s gonna be ok, alright? For as long as my body’s still functioning, I’ll keep on running, and I’ll keep on running til we take ‘em down, alright?”

As much as Wally hurt from knowing what fate awaited his uncle, he closed his eyes and nodded - finding solace in still having time left to save the world alongside him. This moment of hope was actually added to, thanks to words from Omega:

“There is a treatment for ogilvie syndrome” the robot said, gaining the attention of all in the room, “If you acquire all seven chaos emeralds or gain treatment from the master emerald’s energy, you could perhaps stabilize or even remove the chaotic energy within your body.”

“So, you’re saying there’s a chance?” Wally asked, his eyes widening as they beamed now with optimistic hope, “Uncle Barry won’t have to die?”

Omega responded:

“I would suggest we get your relative to Angel Island, as searching for the chaos emeralds would be less efficient and more time consuming. I am detecting that Barry’s physiology is accelerating the illness.”

“Alright then” Barry remarked, looking at the robot already prepared to rush his way off of the shop, “Where’s the Angel Island? I’ll run over there right now!”

“The Angel Island is suspended in the air by the Master Emerald’s energy - you will need some form of aerial transportation or chaos control to get onto it.”

“Oh, I see….”

Hearing this, Shadow directed his attention to the others and spoke up with his usual blunt tone of voice:

“Rouge, Omega, you guys can go help Barry and Wally get to the Master Emerald before his disease sets in. I’ll go confront Dr. Eggman in Soleanna.”

Rouge and Omega seemed to nod in agreement, though before he could be thanked Shadow walked out of the room, immediately setting forth on his self-proclaimed mission - the sound of his footsteps along the metallic, tiled floor being heard in a descending volume until finally they completely vanished. Of course, Rouge took note of his while shaking her head:

“Walking off without even saying goodbye, amazing how his little trip didn’t change him a bit.”

“Well, anyway” Wally interjected, “We should get going too, the whole, ya know, disease and everything?”

“Don’t worry sweetie, this is an aircraft carrier” Rouge replied, “We just gotta go onto the deck, pick one out, and from there it’ll be smooth sailing!”

“Affirmative.”

Even though both Barry believed Rouge and Omega as they said those things, put up a smile as Wally helped him get back onto his feet - he couldn’t help but feel as though things wouldn’t be nearly as simple as merely heading to the so-called ‘Angel Island’ and harnessing the Master Emerald’s powers. However, he and Wally both followed the two - not precisely having any other option here. Some would be surprised, he was sure, that he would even want to cure his disease. Truth be told, part of him did in fact want to let it end him if only so that he could be rid of the memories once and for all.

However, at his heart he was still a hero. He was still the Flash. He wasn’t going to give up without a fight. So he pressed on, like a soldier with truly gargantuan battle wounds. Darkseid didn’t break him, and neither shall Mephiles.


	9. Angel Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, Rouge, Wally and Omega head for the Angel Island in order to cure Barry of his terminal illness before it's too late. Unfortunately, their plan doesn't go precisely as they expected to when they are ambushed.....twice.

The selection of an aircraft upon reaching the deck of the Kalinske was not a difficult design to make. While there were plenty to choose from aboard the massive aircraft carrier, with time being of the essence the group of Barry, Rouge, Omega and Wally simply selected the one that was both closest to them as well as large enough to fit all of them inside. Thankfully for them, a silver colored G.U.N. transport helicopter was present only a few feet away from the lift that brought them to the deck of the ship. It was very basic, if not outdated, in it’s design and completely lacked weapons - though neither Barry nor Wally were in a position to complain. As long as it had the ability to get them where they needed to be, it was good enough for them.

Thankfully, both Barry and Wally now sported proper attire rather than hospital gowns. While Barry had on his current red spandex suit, Wally had on a blackened suit created by G.U.N. for special operations. While it was similar to his original suit, being tight around his body and featured an appropriate face mask, it was mostly dark black in coloration and lacked the speed force lightning bolt symbol - instead having a G.U.N. symbol on the chest. He settled for it only because he didn’t even want to waste a second.

Accompanied by two human pilots as they seated themselves properly within it’s hull, the group was treated to the ambient sounds of the propellers and engines joined only by the occasional sound of unimportant chatter from the pilots themselves. With the helicopter soon taking flight - the windows quickly prestening a wide open and ‘moving’ ocean rather than the deck of the Kalinske, Wally took it upon himself to ask his uncle a question he had been waiting for an opportunity to ask:

“So, Unc” he said, “How long was I out for?”

“Huh?” Barry at first didn’t understand the question, having been gazing out of the nearest window with his mind on many other things, however Wally was quick to clarify what he had just said:

“You know, how many years did I miss out on?”

“Oh” Barry swallowed a bit, nervous about the idea of telling Wally about the previous timeline, not wanting the kid to know how horrifically it all ended, “Well, who was on the Titans when you left?”

“Me, Robin, Speedy, Bumblebee, Beast Boy and that sexy Starfire was still the newest member” Wally explained, even though he knew the latter was his friend Dick’s ‘main squeeze’. “It was only I think about a month or two after she showed up on earth, actually.”

“Wow, Kid” Barry rubbed the back of his head, calmly explaining to Wally: “That was like, just about nine to ten years ago from when I created the last flashpoint.”

Hearing that, Wally’s eyes widened. He processed what he had just been said, in shock at how much time had missed out on. Though many would be completely horrified at that reveal - and part of him certainly was - the young speedster managed to not let it show, instead finding it within him to respond with a more controlled:

“Wow, talk about out of the loop...ten years...how much important stuff did I miss?”

That was a question Barry had been dreading. He looked for a few milliseconds at Rouge and Omega, who were simply listening to the conversation quietly, before turning back to his inquisitive nephew. The boy still looked about the same age he was when he was taken, still having the appearance of a young teenager rather than an adult man as one would assume he would have become - making it all the harder for Barry to say what he felt he had to. Even so, with another nervous swallow the Flash forced words out of his mouth:

“Well, I guess I should start with Speedy and Bumblebee leaving the Titans after you left” Barry explained, “Speedy had a drug addiction problem and needed help, Bumblebee just kind of went on to do her own thing. Raven and Blue Beetle joined the Titans, and the Robin you remember became Nightwing - Batman did get a new Robin later though, a kid I’m sure you’d _loved_ to have met.”

“That ‘loved’ reeks of heavy sarcasm” Wally remarked, to which Barry chuckled - a soft smirk painting his face.

“As for major Superhero stuff, well you missed out on Darkseid and the Parademons invading earth, and then Trigon possessing the League and making the Titans had to save us from certain demonic doom, oh and also you missed out on meeting Wonder Girl and Superboy too.”

“Okay, first off, I missed out on having to save your butt from an evil super powerful demon? Now _that_ sucks!”

“Ha” Barry laughed, “It sure was crazy, yeah.”

“And” Wally asked, “There’s a Superboy? Did Superman have a son or?”

“Well, kinda, I mean he and Lois were - but no, it wasn’t his ‘son’ per say. Basically Darkseid sent this Doomsday thing down to earth...we thought it killed Superman, but he came back to life later. In the meantime though, Luthor revealed he had a clone of Superman - one that honestly, kinda reminded me of you sometimes.”

“Ha” Wally smirked, “Bet I’m still better lookin’ though.”

“Heh”

“So, anyway, sounds like you guys had a lot of fun without me” Wally commented, “What happened that made you have to reset it?”

There it was.

The question that Barry had been dreading.

Yet again, Barry quickly switched his gaze between Wally and the other two sitting with them. He simply had no idea how to answer that, not helped by the memories taking over. He remembered vividly the failure of the Justice League’s assault on Apokolips, and just as vividly the bodies of the deceased heroes that managed to be recovered. He remembered seeing them with shrouds over their bodies, laid out in a room of the all but destroyed Titans tower. Those who had died earlier were either not recovered or well beyond decomposition, and he remembered now that Wallace’s skeleton had been among the latter. He remembered Nightwing’s state, alive but left permanently insane. Starfire was mostly cybernetic. Wally’s other friends, Speedy and Bumblebee, decomposed to a skeletal state. The only deceased titan that even really had a corpse was Superboy, the rest were either skeletons or fractions of recovered bodies. If Wally had seen that, it’s possible any shred of his typical optimism would have died. Barry himself was mortified and demoralized seeing it all. The last thing he wanted was for his nephew to share even an ounce of his pain. His lips quivered, vibrating at rapid pace as he struggled to speak, not wanting his surviving nephew to know the fate that would have been awaiting him had he not been taken.

_I don’t even know how they killed her...._

His silence did gain Rouge and Wally’s concerned attention however, with Wally being the one to bring him back to reality:

“Unc? Unc, what’s wrong? What happened?”

With a shaking of his head, Barry looked at Rouge and Omega before turning back to Wally. With a deep breath as he looked his worried nephew directly in the eye, he told the young boy in a firm voice:

“You don’t want to know.”

There was a strong, awkward silence after that. Wally slightly glared, annoyed at being unable to find out what had warranted the creation of an entirely new timeline. Barry meanwhile, was unwilling to divulge said information to his nephew. Omega and Rouge meanwhile, sat in the background of this discussion, both unsure of what would be appropriate to say in this situation. However, Rouge soon decided it best to simply change the subject entirely:

“So anyway, perhaps it would be good of me to fill you boys in on some information about this current timeline?” she said as she gained both of their attention, “I know that your previous one was quite the party based on what I’ve heard, but I’m sure you guys would like to know more about the world you live in now?”

“That’d be great, Rouge” Barry said, nodding, though looking at Wally. Though the boy first shook his head a bit, he eventually gave Rouge a nod as well.

“Well” Wally spoke up, “How about we start with what year is it here?”

“The year? Well, I haven’t really been keeping track lately” Rouge admitted, slightly embarrassed, turning to Omega: “Omega, what year is it?”

The robot answered accordingly:

“The current year using the common place Porkerian calendar is 2006. Horus 5th, 2006.”

Both Barry and Wally were stunned to learn they were over a decade behind even from when Wally’s kidnapping had taken place - but the use of ‘Horus’ as a month was what spurred Barry to immediately ask:

“Horus...5th?”

“It’s one of our months” Rouge explained, “Aset, Hathor, Sekhmet, Geb, Horus, Ra, Thoth, Sobek, Atum, Set, Wadjet and Osiris.”

“Wow…” both Barry and Wally did not know how to respond to this reveal, they weren’t quite sure if there was anything they honestly could say. 

“Is there something wrong?”

“N-no” Barry stuttered, “It’s just, different from how I remember it; that’s all.”

“Yeah” Wally nodded, nervously rubbing the back of his hand, “Call it a culture shock, haha.”

“Well, it’s understandable” Rouge explained, waving her hand once, “It seems like our entire world history is different from your previous timeline!”

“More like the entire universe’s history” Barry remarked, “But yeah....anyway, where is the Angel Island? Like, how far away is it?”

“Well, the Angel Island usually floats over the Mystic Ruins” Rouge explained, folding her arms as she recounted, “We should be there in a few hours flying at top speed, though we will have to pass over Station Square.”

“Station Square?” Barry replied, perking up, “I read about that place after I first woke up here, the book mentioned it was attacked by a giant monster.”

“By Chaos, yes” Rouge nodded, “That was just about two years ago. The city was completely flooded and destroyed. There was an initiative to rebuild the city, but it fell through.”

Listening to what she said, Barry and Wally did not know how at first to respond to this information. They had a hard time fathoming that a city could be destroyed enough to be completely abandoned, though they knew neither of them knew or understood who or what ‘Chaos’ was. However, still they nodded and listened to what it was she had to say: until Barry questioned what both he and Wally had on their minds:

“So they just left the city abandoned and in ruins?”

“Well, Station Square was a large city. One of the biggest in the Federation to be precise” Rouge explained, “However, the federal government didn’t have the funds to afford the project after the Black Arms attacked - rebuilding Central City, Westopolis and the various other places the aliens damaged took priority. Most of the people who survived the Perfect Chaos attack had already moved to new places anyway.”

“Well, that’s a relief at least!” Wally exclaimed - finding the silver lining of joy in what otherwise was a rather dark tale, “Also, sweet, you guys still got Central City here!”

“Yeah, but it’s not _our_ Central City, Walls” Barry was quick to clarify, “I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s the capital of the United Federation, that’s all I know about it so far though.”

“Heh, well it’s a city named Central City, located in the United something, way I see it as long as it’s got the speed fam living in it we may as well just consider it ours anyway!”

The smile on Barry’s face was as warm as it could be as he nearly came to laugh as he heard those words, spoken in the most optimistic of tones he’s heard in a while. After what he had been through, such happiness truly was a welcome intoxication. With all of the darkness surrounding him, having such a bright light in the center was a welcome thing indeed as he remarked:

“Heh, well you’re not wrong, Kid.”

“So anyway, how about you tell us some things about you guys?” Wally turned his attention over to Rouge and Omega, “Since it seems like we’re gonna be in this thing for the long haul, I figure we may as well get to know each other a little bit, ya know?”

“Oh” Rouge almost giggled at first before a tone of vanity seemed to take over her voice, “Well, you’ve probably already assumed that I work as an agent for G.U.N. - though I don’t mean to brag, I’m arguably much more well known as one of the world’s greatest treasure hunters.”

“Treasure Hunter?” Barry’s response elicited a nod from Rouge, to which Barry further remarked: “Well that sure is familiar for me.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t want to go too into detail, but let’s just say if you were a cat and had a whip, I’d mistake you for someone from the previous timeline.”

“Well, I _do_ have whips” Rouge admitted in a blunt manner, stating “I just don’t bring them with me every single day.”

“I’m not gonna ask what you use them for” Wally quipped, muttering “I feel like it’s better that way.”

With a smirk on her face, Rouge shrugged. Neither Barry nor Wally wanted to think too much about what the smirk meant. Barry himself even decided to bring the subject back to where it had been before:

“So anyway, how does a treasure hunter end up becoming a government agent? I mean, not that I know anything about becoming a government agent, but I’m just trying to understand this timeline best I can.”

“Well, unfortunately I’m not allowed to divulge too many details” Rouge answered, folding her arms, “However I can tell you that the basic idea is that G.U.N. figured that my skills as a treasure hunter were useful to them. Can’t tell you what for.”

“Yeah, of course you can’t.” Barry muttered, before turning to Omega: “And what about him? What’s his story?”

Omega was naturally one to explain his own backstory, even if it was in his monotone robotic voice:

“I am E-123 codename ‘Omega’ the robot stated, “Created by Dr. Ivo Robotnik, otherwise known as ‘Eggman’. I was created as the 24th and last installment in the E-100 Series of robots, which began with the E-100 codename ‘Alpha’. I was abandoned by my creator within a currently abandoned outpost situated near the ruins of an ancient seaborn civilization. Since then, I have turned against my creator. Currently, I have chosen to align myself with G.U.N., though more specifically I have aligned myself with Shadow the Hedgehog and the Rouge the Bat - I have found it more effective to remain on a team with them.”

“And I couldn’t agree with that more, Omega!” Rouge responded, a smile across her face. Barry and Wally seemed to also admire the sentiment as well, even though Omega’s backstory did not entirely make sense to them nor alleviate their confusion.

However, yet again Barry knew that he had to at least say something to keep the track of conversation moving along:

“So, what about Shadow?”

“Huh?” Rouge turned to face Barry, one of her brows perked up along with her curiosity. The speedster continued on:

“What can you tell me about Shadow? He’s gone on about how he’s the ultimate lifeform, what’s the story behind that?”

“Oh, well Shadow normally doesn’t like to talk about his past very much, and while I know he’s not here I still don’t know if I should just disclose his personal information like that” Rouge admitted, “However, I can explain to you some of the things which are usually public knowledge.”

To that, Barry gave an understanding nod - respecting Rouge’s loyalty to her friend and teammate as she continued on to explain things for him:

“Shadow was created approximately fifty years ago by the late professor Gerald Robotnik aboard the Space Colony ARK, intended to be the ultimate lifeform. About two years ago he helped save the earth from the ARK crashing into it, nearly sacrificing his life in the process. However, he survived his fall from the atmosphere and came back - which was a good thing too, considering last year he effectively destroyed the Black Arms invasion.”

Of all the things he had just heard, a few things in particular stood out to the two attentive speedsters more than all else:

“There’s a space colony?” Wally remarked.

“He survived a fall from the _atmosphere_?” Barry questioned.

Both of them were naturally stunned, Rouge however responded ever so bluntly:

“Yes and Yes” she then added “However, the space colony was shut down fifty years ago and was only briefly returned to an operational status because of one of Eggman’s world domination schemes, and for the sake of trust it’s really best if I don't open that old wound right now.”

“What do you mean by ‘old wound’?” Barry’s question did not get much in the way of a response, instead only Rouge looking out of the window and pointing to something that she could see far below her in the waters of the ocean:

“Oh look, there’s the original Egg Carrier!” she exclaimed, “We’re getting close to the Mystic Ruins now!”

“The original Egg Carrier?”

Looking out their windows, Barry and Wally could not make out anything other than what looked like a large shadow beneath the ocean - visible only as an impressively lengthy shape of darker blue in what was otherwise a sea of at least marginally lighter shades of blue. The dark shape, completely submerged under the flowing waters of the ocean, was barely able to be made out properly though the vaguely rounded triangular shape of its front and it’s otherwise rectangular shape was preserved. Though Barry could see and assumed it resembled the flying battleship that he saw before, he was unable to confirm it. At the very least Rouge was able to do while their aircraft passed over it’s resting place:

“That was Eggman’s original flying battleship. It collapsed into the Nile Ocean after Sonic and Tails did some major damage to one of its wings, and now is completely submerged in the water - Eggman having long since made his third model of it.”

“Wait” Barry remarked as he turned back to Rouge, “He has three of those things?”

“He has had three” Rouge clarified, “The first two were both destroyed….you’ll see the second one when we get to Station Square.”

With the more somber and practically mournful tone used by Rouge, neither Barry nor Wally were particularly excited to see what she was alluding to. Remember well what she had described before, that sentiment lacked much incentive to go away.

Neither of the four really knew how long the remainder of the flight took, at least save for Omega; however he did not say anything. With none of the other three having anything to tell the time, only having the ambient sounds of the helicopter’s engine and blades, the only reason they new that time changed was the sun’s position drifting ever further towards the west while bringing with it a slightly yellowing tint to the world as day began to give way to the afternoon. Barry and Wally both wanted to ask what time it was, but they didn’t truly care enough.

Barry made sure to keep his hands and feet moving, usually through tapping his feet on the floor of the vehicle or his fingers along one of his thighs. As the hours began to pass he could feel the disease within him in the form of what felt like small energy pulses routinely pumping along with the blood in his veins. They felt almost like the speed force for a few seconds, though more painful - almost as though some sadistic being was pinching at his blood vessels every few seconds. It was enough to make his eyes twitch a bit each time, and that’s not to mention his mental effort to not bring any attention to his routine migraines. Indeed, he had to make sure to himself that he still had control over his limbs. For the time being, he still did.

If the others took issue with the repeated sound of the Flash tapping his feet, none of them said anything.

The silence persisted.

It was only broken not by Rouge, Omega or Barry but instead by Wally. After such an imhanly long silence, Wally’s eyes widened as out of a window an almost horrifying sight came into cover. Pointing to what he saw and calling it out with a genuinely shocked voice, he asked to the literal batwoman:

“Is that, Station Square?”

Looking out her window, as did Barry, Rouge only nodded her head in confirmation:

“Yes, it is.”

Station Square was once a vibrant city, practically the equivalent of Metropolis if what Barry learned from Soleanna’s library was to be true. An important center for tourism and trade as well as one of the United Federation’s largest cities, in life it had bustling streets with dense traffic, an incredibly active and expansive theme park, revolutionary highway system and a sparkling clean beach locale that gave Wave Ocean a run for its money. Now however, it was a corpse. Left to rot where it lay.

The buildings, from the suburban houses in the distance to the high rises, apartments and skyscrapers at the heart of the city were all left in ruin. Some remained standing straight, though many others were slanted or even completely toppled over onto either the streets, other buildings, or both. The majority of them also had gaping holes ripping through their walls, reminding Barry very well of what the cities of the world looked like after Darkseid’s occupation. His eyes repeatedly flashed said memories with nearly every single building he gazed at for long enough. The roads and lower halves of the buildings showed signs of devastating flood damage, which was to be expected considering the entire city seemed to descend into the ocean itself as Barry and Wally could clearly see that either a third or perhaps even a half of the city still was flooded albeit in a manner that seemed to suggest the sea itself was slowly swallowing the city as it did Atlantis; as if the city itself had been damaged to an extent that part of it was now below sea level.

The Emerald Coast beach locale was completely submerged by the sea that it once turned into a beautiful tourist destination. Only a few lush islands and protruding rocks remained of the actual shoreline and beach area, while the hotel at the edge of the city that gave way to it was now at least half submerged.

Twinkle Park, the city’s theme park that also once made beauty of it’s shore, was also a shadow of its former self. Once alive with roller coasters, futuristic themed kart races and even an entire castle in the center more than worthy of exploration it was now nothing but flooded ruins. Half of the park was now underwater, with it’s kart racing tracks completely collapsed in the middle of the park grounds - littered with debris from both city and sea alike, at least from what was visible above the water. The castle and it’s feudal spires remained technically above water, though it too was draped with various debris from the rest of the city, ranging from rogue street signs, broken glass likely strewn all over, to even vehicles being lodged within it’s roof or other attractions of the park.

The downtown of the city meanwhile was perhaps the most destroyed of them all. In addition to being half flooded due to the seemingly permanent change in sea level, the entire area around city hall was a jumbled mess of rotting roads, destroyed buildings, vehicles strewn about carelessly and even entire sections of highway completely and almost casually collapsed onto the streets or into buildings themselves. That’s not to mention the second Egg Carrier model - the entire once aerial battleship was in the middle of downtown, with it’s lower half and massive triangular engines impaled by partially crumbled high-rise buildings as it’s front dipped forward the water - and entire skyscraper lodged in the middle of the ship’s deck. That’s not to mention that the ship was subsequently torn into three large pieces: the back and middle held up by the buildings impaling them and while clearly dismembered from each other still relatively close, while the front half of the ship was completely torn off, at least half of it being below water as it rested at the foot of the building hoisting up the ship’s center. That’s not to mention the fact that it seemed as though the ship was also cut down the middle almost completely, with the front piece opening almost like a cracked egg or sliced cake. The other two pieces had the same complete damage, though were held together by the buildings they were wedged into.

Even the water in the Egg Carrier 2.0’s nearby vicinity was turned black by the fuel spilled out from the ship, both from the engines and from the separated sections alike. Dead fish rested on the surface of the water around it, though many of the creatures had been from the ship’s own onboard aquariums rather than the sea itself. blue sharks, hammerhead sharks, piranhas, tuna, bass, groupers, eels, sea snakes and countless others now inhabited the underwater portions of the city. While many of them lay dead due to the Egg Carrier 2’s crash or due to it’s spilling of oil, those who managed to survive at the very least made an oceanic ecosystem out of the city’s submerged portions, substituting it for their home. Though also turning the city into quite the uninhabitable wasteland for those who wished to return.

Outside of the underwater segments however, there was not a single sign of life in the entire city. Not a single person nor domesticated animal seemed to exist. There were plants, such as algae and vines alike, beginning to cover parts of the manmade structures, though outside of pigeons flying about there was not much to give the impression of this being a city that was once this timeline’s Metropolis. There was not even a single shred of evidence that any reconstruction work got very far at all considering that even the suburbs seemed to be completely abandoned, left in their ruined state to rot in the light of the sun. Like a corpse in the middle of a massive desert, with not a soul to know or perhaps even care that it was there.

“Oh my god…” Barry, mouth agape, remarked, “This looks more like ruins than a city.”

“Well, I warned you guys” Rouge reminded them, “Welcome to Station Square. The former largest city in the United Federation.”

“Jesus” the astonished Wally commented as his eyes scanned across all of the city that they could see, “‘Perfect Chaos’ did all this?”

“Pretty much” Rouge nodded, “If you had been there you would have seen why, but yes one monster accomplished all of this, in the span of less than an hour. If Sonic hadn’t neutralized that thing, the entire world could look just like this city.”

“Neutralized?”

“From what I understand, Chaos only attacked the world because of immense anger and pain within his heart for wrongs done to him. Sonic managed to reform him however, from what I’ve heard. Even still, nothing’s ever gonna make this place be like it used to.”

“Well” Wally said as he processed the information and attempted to make sense of it, still finding some excuse to almost comically remark “Guess I missed out on a lot in this timeline too.”

“Oh sweetie” Rouge responded with her own remark, “You don’t know the half of it.”

“So” Barry spoke up, bringing attention back to himself as he was sure to remind the group of why they were together within this helicopter to begin with: “How much farther away is the Angel Island?”

Omega was the one who, yet again quite bluntly, answered in the inquiry:

“The Angel Island is at least 226 miles away from Station Square, using the distance between the city and the Mystic Ruins. However, we should be reaching the Ruins within the hour via this helicopter.”

Looking at Barry’s silent self, she made sure to quickly add a more comforting set of words:

“Don’t worry, when we near Angel Island, you’ll know.”

Nodding, Barry accepted what she had said as truth. For the remainder of their journey he figured he would silently gaze out the window, despite the apocalyptic view that was kept outside. If anything, it was a reminder of what would happen should the current enemy manage to succeed, albeit with less fire and more water based on what he’d seen so far. 

There was a deep, quiet sadness to what remained of Station Square. It was as though the city’s corpse was weeping even though it no longer held sentient life at all, nor was sentient in it’s own right for that matter. Looking down at what was left of the once proud train station, presumably the genesis of the city itself, almost made Barry want to cry. The station itself was completely destroyed. Due to it being entered by a flight of stairs it was able to prevent severe flooding to it’s lobby area - though the entire roof and top half of the building were destroyed as though a massive foot or some other beast had broken straight through it, leaving debris and a massive gaping hole in their place. Inside were still signs of water damage, with the tiled floor and walls being atrociously waterlogged, a shallow big toe-height layer of water inside of the building proper, streaming down the building’s rear stairway into the more extensively flooded Casinopolis district. All across the indoor stairways were litter of trash, forgotten possessions, seaweed and shards of the glass dome that once rested at the top of the ceiling. The train tracks themselves were not operational in the slightest, often having large gaps torn out of them, either seemingly vanishing into thin air or visible nearby - either lodged into buildings or just lying on either cracked asphalt if not floating in the flood waters.

The only solace Barry found in this was that there were no human corpses that he could see - though he reminded himself that not only had it been two years since the incident, but that the fins of sharks could be seen skimming along the surface of the flooded portions of the city. He did not let his mind think too much about it.

Looking down at the tracks that the trains would once go back and forth along as they sped by under the helicopter, Barry watched as the environment around them switched to flooded streets with destroyed buildings besides them to being surrounded by completely wide open ocean, the ‘Nile Ocean’ being the only thing around once they left Station Square and were increasingly close to the Mystic Ocean. It’s calm, sparkling and deep waving blue waters and the tall mountains nearing ever closer was a much pleasing vista to look at for just about all on the helicopter. On one side was nothing but a wide open ocean for thousands of miles on end. On the other side was a large, expansive gulf with what appeared to be a tropical beach complete with a wide open jungle with an equally extensive mountain range guarding the jungle from the more plateau-like area where the train’s tracks had a wooden stopping area constructed at.

He would have referred to it as a train stop, but considering it was made almost entirely of wood that was slowly aging as the ever bright and yellow sun shined it’s lights upon it and actually had a ladder used to bring one down to a platform beside the cliffside, where one could use a small wooden raft with a propeller in the back to travel across the sea - such a low level of technology made it hard to compare it with anything remotely modern.

Of course, there was no actual train in sight. Whether it was no longer operational or simply not in the immediate area wasn’t clear in the slightest - though that was the last thing on Barry’s mind as he looked up to where he realized the helicopter was ascending towards.

Yet again finding his mouth agape, all Barry could muster out of it was a stunned remark:

“Oh my god…”

It was no doubt Angel Island, there wasn’t very much else that it could be. Many miles above the gulf, casting its shadow over it like the moon in front of the sun during an eclipse. A massive island, many hundreds of miles wide and a near equal amount of miles long. Levitating high above the earth, demanding the full attention of those standing so far below it as though it completely dominated the sky. It defied gravity like no other. It should most definitely be combined with the Mystic Ruins area as some conjoined landmass, though instead it chose to tower above it in total defiance of gravity.

The island itself was massive enough to have the entire previous timeline city of Tokyo upon its surface, along with Moscow, Central City, Metropolis, Gotham, London, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Cairo, and perhaps even Shanghai for that matter. If not a fair bit more, though by what measure Barry was unsure aa he only looked at it all from the perspective of the helicopter’s window. 

The vast surface of the island held an entire continent worth of environments and ecosystems; in the center of the island was the vast Red Mountain range, with a particularly massive volcano in the center of the island itself - the crater of it being large enough to hold a asteroid the size of the one which ended the dinosaurs. Discounting the Red Mountain volcano, most of the mountains on the island had snow-covered peaks akin to the Himalayas on earth - more than likely owing to the fact the island was so many miles into the air. The vast ‘Ice Cap’ region descended directly into a vibrant and pristine lake surrounded by jungle and mountain alike. Speaking of which, the majority of the island was covered in lush, green and very tropical jungle much like an island in the middle of the pacific would feature. Palm trees, banana trees, cacao trees, rambutan trees, pepper trees, papaya trees, pineapple trees, cinnamon trees, ferns, flowers of various exotic colors with various ancient ruins, waterfalls and flowing rivers scattered throughout. The only break from the field of emerald green foliage was a large section of blackened earth and dead vegetation, signifying that at one point a massive fire had taken place on the island’s surface. It was healing, though a significant portion of it remained damaged by events of the past. Beyond the sections of it destroyed due to those past events however, there were portions of the tropical jungle that, the higher they were in elevation, turned into more of a vast and equally vibrant yet also more temperate forest complete with mushrooms from the typical sizes not visible from the air to massive fungi large enough for a grown adult to bounce on, with some even reaching high above the canopy of towering redwood trees. Their dotted caps were impossible to miss. On the other side of the mountains - by extension the island as a whole, there was the vast Sandopolis Desert, which while not as large still managed to be reminiscent of the beautiful yet scorching hot sahara as well as the red-orange outback and sonoran deserts. It managed to have more in common with the sahara however, as the desert was sprinkled with various ancient and sand-coated ruins, including but certainly not limited to enormous pyramid complexes with the light and heat of the sun bouncing both down onto and off of them, generating a mighty glare upon the eyes of those who first looked upon them. The expansive desert was only paused by the occasional lush and green oasis area or by expansive canyons with tremendous wind currents bellowing from large craters beneath the ground.

There were other structures across the island as well of course - ranging from elevated ruins within a savannah-like grassland between the desert and the jungle that was littered with various hills, plateaus, canyons and other forms of rugged terrain, as well was what appeared to be an entirely metallic harbor area constructed within the center of the lake and even what was akin to an oversized carnival locale the size of an entire city situated at the foot of the mountain with the greatest concentration of an Ice Cap peak.

Besides the island, also floating within the sky in complete defiance of gravity, were various structures in the from of various ruins; it was as though an entire temple was flying just besides the massive island - complete with various towers, walkways and even rails all complete garden like vegetation such as beautifully vibrant and flowering vines hanging off the levitating ruins in numerous emerald green patches. Most of the ruins were made of stone though at parts the stone would subside in order to make way for glass displaying the clouds beneath let alone whatever vast ocean or landmass was beneath even them. The ruins themselves were designed in such a way that they seemed like a series of nonsensical and elaborate pathways yet also perfectly planned out at the same time - a startling contradiction. Even then, there was a more simplistic, if not outright rural appearing set of levitating structures - ranging from intricate pathways made of wood and metal and stone islands complete with both grass and earth atop of them at times even connected by land bridges. All while windmills and powerful breezes of high altitude winds blew through the aerial ‘landscape’. The ruins and their companion seemed to be orbiting the far larger island with how closely they both levitated next to it, as though they were in fact extensions of it.

With the helicopter soon ascending enough so that Barry and Wally could both see the island and it’s stunning landscape from the windows of the vehicle, both speedsters were left absolutely awestruck - their mouths agape as their eyes feasted upon the sight. Everything they were viewing seemed to defy the laws of science they were all too accustomed to, yet did so in a way that seemed perfectly natural. Ever the analytic mind, Barry’s first astounded thoughts were skeptical in nature:

_There’s no way that this thing is just flying around like that…_

He doubted ever so much:

_There has to be some form of technology keeping this thing afloat. That or some really powerful ‘magic’. Or both._

In the middle of their dumbfounded gazing, Rouge was happy to bring at least their mental attention over to herself:

“Well, we’ve finally made it!” she said, “Angel Island! Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been here, for better or for worse. A shame the usual guardian’s not home, then it’d be a _real_ reunion.”

Of course, the speedsters were too busy sightseeing to pay attention to her words. In fact, Wally’s response was entirely unrelated to what she had said:

“A giant, flying, island….a literal giant, flying, island. This defies all known laws of both aviation and gravity.”

“Ha” Rouge laughed for just a bit, “Yeah that’s what you think when you first see it alright.”

“How is this thing staying afloat?”

“That’d be the power of the Master Emerald” Rouge explained, “Not only is it a beautiful gem that I’d love to add to my vast collection, but it’s one of the most powerful things in the world. Not only can it keep Angel Island, the Sky Sanctuary _and_ Windy Valley all afloat, but it also has access to eternal, unlimited power - even able to overpower the unlimited power of the chaos emeralds. They say that with all eight of those emeralds, thoughts become power. The Master Emerald I suppose is the organizer of those thoughts.”

“You guys just keep something _that_ powerful on an island?” Barry turned to Rouge with his eyes still widened in astounded shock, “A very big island that you’d be a fool to miss?”

“Well, the Emerald is usually hidden away deep inside the island” Rouge swiftly explained, “Guarded by its appointed guardian in the underground Hidden Palace area. Trust me, most people who would come here with intent to steal would have to go through _a lot_ of hoops, so to speak.”

“I bet!” Wally exclaimed. Though she would love to explain more about Angel Island, if not go onto the island on a personal ‘detour’, she knew as well as everyone else that there was a more emergency matter to discuss:

“How are you holding up, Barry?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m still able to move my arms and legs” Barry showcased such motions as he realized what she had meant, “I should still be good to go on my own, for now at least.”

“Alright” Rouge nodded, “Luckily I know a shortcut to get into the Hidden Palace, we can’t drop directly into the volcano because of the fumes and all, but I’ll get us there faster than you think!”

“My life is in your hands” Barry tried to smirk as he said that remark, though quickly did his smirk fade away to a look of more pressing concern as she said a blunt “Literally.”

Rouge had opened her mouth to respond, though was just as swiftly stopped from saying anything as soon she as well as Barry and Wally was knocked abruptly to the floor of the aircraft as it shook and rumbled - being struck by projectiles from outside. With the helicopter swiftly sounding off the repetitive sounds of it’s alarms as the pilots began to scramble to maintain control, there was hardly enough time for the three to stand up before another projectile struck the armored vehicle - it wasn’t long before they could see smoke billowing from the aircraft via the windows. Just as Rouge, Barry and Wally were beginning to panic about what was happening; Omega chimed in with his explanation of these startling events: 

“The aircraft is under attack. Scan of immediate area confirms attackers are E-106 codename ‘Eta’, E-107 codename ‘Theta’, E-108 codename ‘Iota’, E-109 codename ‘Kappa’ and E-110 codename ‘Lambda’. Preparing for engagement.” cocking his arm as though it was the barrel of a mighty shotgun, he began to walk towards the door of the aircraft - easily making it open with ease. While Rouge, Barry and Wally were blasted with the high speed winds that were previously moving across the outside of the helicopter Omega himself stood firm as he spoke in his monotone robotic voice: “All weapon systems online and operational. Will now engage designated enemies.”

“Omega?!” Rouge exclaimed, regaining her composure and footing even in spite of the powerful gusts of when coming from the open door. Omega turned his head towards her as he uttered out:

“I will annihilate these adversaries in a short matter of time, though the damage they are causing to the aircraft will likely cause it to crash; you should work to ensure it crashes on the island’s surface.”

There wasn’t much time for any further conversation, as the robots outside fired their weapons again at the helicopter, causing further damage in addition to more rumbling from the perspective of those inside. While the armor was durable, the machine was not invulnerable - it would not last long with their repeated strikes. With the other three yet again on the floor and the pilots audibly having a harder time maintaining control of the aircraft, Omega simply leaped himself into the air outside and activated the propulsion systems on his back in order to begin flight. 

Flying in the air using built-in aerial systems, the robots he was to face off against were in all honesty not much in the way of a threat - at least not individually. They were all based on earlier models of the E-100 series, featuring a similar head and face to Omega though a vastly skinnier body plan with extremely thin arms and legs compared to E-123’s. They also had a pentagon-shaped ‘crotch skirt’ hanging from their torso, in fact it dangled from their exhaust pipes. The rest of their design was virtually the same: down the middle of their torso were white stripes, including down their backs, and on the sides of their ‘chest’ were their numbers. The only thing truly unique about the lot of them was the overall color scheme they had and the weapons they were equipped with.

Theta’s primary paint color was, Eta’s was a yellow color that was almost though not quite the same as the color used for the top of his head, Theta’s was a vibrant cyan color, Iota’s was a pale gray that in the light of the sun almost seemed white, Kappa’s was a beautiful jade color, and Lambda’s was a vibrant pink color - essentially a strong shade of magenta.

As for their weapons, each of them had a different combination taking the place of their forearms and hands; Eta had a pair of harpoon guns with the harpoons using metallic chains rather than ropes, Theta had a pair of claws for both hands - claws that generated and weaponized electricity in conjunction with the mobility of it’s mechanical body, Iota bolstered a pair of lock-on RPG launchers on either arms and was in fact the one causing most of the damage to the helicopter, Kappa sported katana swords on the end of either harm in place of hands, and finally Lambda was equipped with powerful assault rifles as his weaponry - causing largely supplementary damage to the helicopter. 

With not much time to waste, Omega immediately turned to his ‘older brothers’. Changing one of his clawed hands into a machine gun and opening multiple weapon hatches across his torso he fired a barrage of shots at the five robots. The machine gun bullets tore through Theta within a matter of seconds, causing the machine to explode into a mess of smoke, electric sparks and now falling pieces of what was once a machine. The onslaught of missiles fired from Omega’s torso was able to be countered by Kappa who sliced the missiles into pieces with his blades prior to contact, and by Iota through firing his own missiles at Omega’s - giving the helicopter a break from having it’s hull ravaged. Lambda was not as lucky as it’s ‘brothers’ however, as the robot’s guns proved ineffective against both Omega’s dense armor and also against the missiles ultimately locked-in on him from behind. Unable to react in time, E-110 was destroyed in a similar manner to E-107 mere moments prior with their parts falling many miles down into the depths of the ocean below.

“They wouldn’t have been able to beat Beta or Gamma” Omega remarked as he watched the remains of his first victims descend. As if they were offended by this, Kappa and Iota became intent on charging at Omega for a direct confrontation. Iota fired two pairs of RPG missiles at Omega, though both were successfully dodged with elaborate aerial evasion. With Iota firing another pair and redirecting his original group to fire at the helicopter, Omega used his own lock-on weaponry in the form of small yellow laser blasts from the top of his thick arm plates - managing to lock-on to all of the missiles and destroy them before any harm could be done. 

With surprisingly high speed, Kappa made a charge at Omega with both of his blades positioned directly for the ‘younger’ robot’s torso. However, Omega ‘stood his ground’ - best that he could while in the air, and with his hands grabbed both of the glistening blades. After a very short struggle he forced Kappa’s own arms to bend in such a way that the robot’s own swords impaled it straight through the head - causing it to short circuit, go offline, and quietly descend to the ocean below thereafter. 

Iota ultimately proved to not last much longer; though the ‘older’ machine fired another pair of lock-on rockets directly at Omega they were yet again effortlessly destroyed before Omega made his own high velocity charge at the machine. Yet again not being capable of reacting fast enough, Iota soon had an entire arm of Omega impaling him directly through the torso. As E-108 promptly began to short-circuit, it was completely reduced to scrap metal when Omega violently motioned the arm upwards - going straight through E-108 in the process thus fully dismantling the robot’s entire body for the most part.

“Annihilation complete” was Omega’s remark of choice as he watched Iota’s remains join the previous four in falling to the salty waters of the sea far below.

However, Omega had not yet properly destroyed all of the aspiring assailants. E-106 ‘Eta’ had taken advantage of the others’ distraction and flown himself to the front of the helicopter as it began to stabilize its descent. It was not long before Rouge, who had since gotten into the cockpit to assist the pilots, found herself gasping of fright as two harpoons plowed their way through the glass of the helicopter and directly through the chests of both human pilots. With the helicopter immediately beginning to go on an outright nosedive as it’s descent went from controlled to now psychotically rapid, Omega wasted no time in engaging Eta in aerial combat. 

Eta just barely had enough time to pull back in his harpoons - clanging one of them loudly against Omega’s arm once his younger brother managed to approach him. Eta’s arm did not break, and immediately began to crack due to Omega’s superior strength. As if realizing this, he decided to use the other arm to attempt an attack, though not only did the harpoon barely graze Omega’s exterior but Omega also grabbed the harpoon chain with his other hand. Eta attempting to fire the other harpoon only resulted in Omega grabbing the other arm and crushing it to pieces with his superior strength - both the harpoon and the chain falling lamely to the sea afterwards. Eta was unable to give any further response, as soon Omega swang him around in the air as though he were performing a hammer throw - swinging E-106 with his full strength through various puff clouds before deciding to release him into the greater sky after at least six or so rapid swings. Though Eta managed to counter his forced momentum using his own jet packs, it was for nought:

“Firing Zeta Energy Cannon!”; Once Omega uttered those words and fired out from his arms his massive purple beam of weaponized energy, E-106 was reduced to blackened ashes within a matter of seconds having been directly in the twin beams’ line of fire.

Omega did not have time to remark anything of his sibling machines’ demises this time though, as he had a far more pressing matter to attend to:

“Priority Situation: New Objective Assigned, rescue Rouge, Barry Allen, and Wallace West.”

Not having any time to waste, Omega got immediately to work on the impromptu rescue mission - with the helicopter being in a rapid freefall towards the ocean, Omega’s CPU quickly processed the most viable solution, and naturally he executed this solution the moment it was successfully processed.

There weren’t many weapons in Omega’s arsenal that were meant for assistance of others rather than for offensive purposes, though Omega knew well how to improvise. Needing to find some way to stop or slow the helicopter’s rapid descent, his clawed hands rapidly morphed into twin weapons that vaguely resemble a futuristic vacuum of sorts, a slick and streamlined pipe-like design with streams of variable lights down either side. The weapons quickly surrounded themselves in an aura of light before firing this aura in beam form at the rapidly falling helicopter.

Rouge, Barry, and Wally were still screaming and struggling to hold on tightly to anything their hands could reach when suddenly they were flung to the ceiling of the helicopter and dropped down to the floor just as swiftly - only once they got up grunting did they see that the entire vehicle was stopped in its tracks, captured by a glowing red aura. The aura came from Omega’s weapons of course, which held the helicopter completely in the robot’s grasp. It was Omega himself who clarified what was actually going on:

“Anti-Gravity Cannon deployment, successful. Calculation proved correct. Now transporting to the nearest viable landing area.”

Inside of the helicopter, Barry, Rouge and Wally held their heads and groaned as they were finally able to stand up properly inside of it again. Wally even went to Rouge’s side, helping her stand up just to make sure that she was alright - something which she naturally appreciated.

“Thanks, dearie.”

It didn’t take Barry long to see that the helicopter was slowly moving towards the levitating ruins surrounding Angel Island - the nearest land area besides the island itself. The older speedster couldn’t help but bring attention to it:

“Okay so I’m not surprised that the robot can do this, but where’s he taking us off to?”

“By the looks of it” Rouge commented as she gazed out of a window, “We’re taking a landing in the Sky Sanctuary - a.k.a. the ruins that levitate around the island.”

“Damnit” Barry grunted, upset at the prospect that his treatment would be delayed, letting out in an irritated tone “How the fuck am I going to get rid of this stupid disease now?!”

“Relax, Barry” Rouge said as she turned to him, “There are shortcuts to the Master Emerald all across the Sky Sanctuary, trust me - I know this island _very_ well.”

“Well, for my sake, I hope you’re right.”

While Barry managed to calm himself, he wasn’t able to make the anxiety or stress leave the back of his mind - having a terminal illness of supernatural origin made such feelings quite inevitable. All he could do was hope that the ‘master emerald’ would be able to heal him in the way everyone said it would. He could still control all of his limbs and bodily functions, though the energy pulses coursing through his veins were getting faster - and not slowing down as his heart did, _not a good sign_.

Omega found a decent enough spot to land both himself and the helicopter onto. It was a straight pathway that was just wide enough to fit the vehicle onto it as well as strong enough to hold it for extended periods of time. Laying down the helicopter with a minimum amount of metallic clangs, Omega lowered himself down right beside it just as Rouge, Wally and Barry stepped outside to join him. With a smile of relief, Rouge thanked her robotic friend:

“Thanks Omega” she said, “We would have surely been dead if it weren’t for you.”

“Think nothing of it, Rouge.”

“Alright” Wally said as she drew attention to himself, “Now that we’re here, what’s the next step? Cuz ya know, we’re pretty far away from the actual island.”

“My sensors indicate that there are devices scattered throughout the levitating ruins that have the ability to transport us instantly between the ruins themselves and the Hidden Palace where the Master Emerald is located” Omega answered, “I will direct us towards the nearest one.”

In response Rouge, Barry and Wally gave silent nods before following Omega as he led the group to where he detected a transportation device. As he had stated, there were numerous such devices throughout the massive expanse of skyward temples, though Omega was fixated on the one he calculated as closest to the four of them. 

Even so, it took long enough to traverse the ruins that the group was still able to get an in-depth look at their surroundings.

By now, they could tell that time had passed between all of the events that transpired - it was now firmly into the afternoon, with the sky beginning to transition from blue to varying shades of darker purple - with shades of orange radiating from beneath the clouds. However, looking off into the distance Barry was the first notice to a spot in the sky that was completely dark - a mix of nothing save for purple, blue and grey - with a stream of what was unmistakably rain visible beneath it. From what Barry could tell however, it was more than a mere rain storm - the occasional flash of lightning repeated from the area, and it was close enough that after some moments the rumbling of thunder could be heard even where the group was. What’s more, as time passed the thunder could be heard - the storm audibly getting closer to the group’s location with each second that passed.

Barry would have brought it up - though he figured the answer would be nothing short of obvious.

Besides, he had more questions about where it was: everything as far as the eye could see was far removed from anything he’d experienced in the previous timeline - or any of the previous timelines for that matter. It was not one structure, but countless amounts of them - floating in the air with little to no signs of what propels them to do so. He remembers magic being a part of the previous timeline, though this entire place - an entire series of pillars, columns, temples, spires and towers flying in the air as though they were in complete defiance of gravity - had no visible civilization around to keep it alive. However, some of the walls did have strings of what appeared to be hieroglyphics scrawled along them, denoting that at least an ancient civilization was behind the creation of these aerial structures. Granted, Barry had assumed that from the aged uet still grand architecture used in each piece.

“How old is this place?” the speedster asked, his eyes fixated on the towers spiraling above him - they were a mix of marble and green vegetation hanging and growing across them. He couldn’t help but be mesmerized by this seemingly spiritual place.

Rouge answered:

“I don’t know exactly, but definitely a few thousand years old” she explained, “This place was built by the ancient Echidnas, who lived in the area of the island long before it was even in the air.”

“Yeah I still don’t understand how an island goes from being, well, normal, to being stuck in the air. Literally breaks every single law of physics.”

“Well” Rouge explained, “From my understanding, the legend goes that at some point the echidnas had angered one of the gods, enough so that the entire island was quite literally chucked into the air.”

“I see” Barry commented, soaking the information and his surroundings in, “Well, that sort of sounds like legends from the previous timeline - and if there’s anything I know from those I’m going to assume there’s a lot of truth in the story than what I’d expect there to be.”

“Yeah” Rouge remarked, nodding as she heard Barry’s observant words. 

“So” Wally interjected, his own eyes examining the ancient ruins, “How much further ‘til we’re at that transporter?”

“Approximately 1 mile down this pathway” Omega bluntly explained, “It is contained within one of the temple structures.”

“Alright, alright” Wally remarked, “Cool, cool. Ya know, this place almost looks like how people back, in the old timeline, made heaven sound like. Not that I was ever that religious but, ya know, just sayin’.”

“You know” Rouge commented, “Now that you mention it, it does look like heaven. At least, a little. If only the weather wasn’t going to get so bad later, the night sky looks absolutely gorgeous from this place.”

“Yeah…”

Yet another rumbling of thunder sounded through the area - echoing for a good few moments afterwards, a sign that the storm was nearing. Any minute now rain would be pouring onto them if they weren’t inside of one of the flying buildings before it came. 

Thankfully for the lot of them, traversing a mile along a pathway that was virtually a straight line did not take very long at all. In fact, they had reached their destination just as the electrical storm arrived onto the scene and began sending it’s rains all across the levitating ruins as well as the mighty angel island itself. The group had just managed to enter the building holding their destination before they could be completely soaked by the incoming rains - though even as they stepped along the marble and mosaic floors they could hear from outside the howling of the winds, clapping of the thunder and lightning, and the rains pouring down onto the ground; all of it having replaced the previous ambience of a more peaceful afternoon breeze. 

The inside of the temple was rounded, just as the building outside was that of a large, marble cylinder with vegetation and vines growing around it. Befitting it, the inside of it was constructed around that design, with the rounded walls supported by tall marble columns stretching far towards the ceiling. The building itself was only illuminated by the glass windows repeated across the sides of the exterior, letting in the light from the outside to at least allow a moderate ability of vision for the group as they entered. Though of course, Omega made up for the exuberant amount of shadows and darkness within the structure. Also within the chamber was a rounded pathway heading upwards into what almost seemed like infinity due to the sheer size of the tower itself - the pathway being made mostly of marble though also sporting glass along the bottom. As for objects within the chamber, for the most part there weren’t any, save for a purple orb held inside what appeared to be a spiraling stand made of purple, glistening crystal. Omega himself walked towards the orb with Rouge following him, though Barry ad Wally couldn’t help but look around the place. 

Inside the shadows of the crevices they could make out statues just before the glass of the windows - with each flash of lightning they could see that these statues were of animalistic figures much like the individuals they’ve seen throughout their time here in this recreated world. The only figures present in the temple however were those of echidnas, and they of course had no context as to who these individuals were in life or if they were once alive at all. 

“Wow” Wally remarked, letting out a whistle, “Sure is a lot of….uh….”

“I think those are echidnas, kid” Barry said to him, smirking slightly before he became confused as well, “At least, I’m pretty sure they are.”

“Heh, could’ve fooled me, those don’t look a damn thing like echidnas.”

“In this timeline, the best thing to do is to just go with it.”

While the two speedsters shared a laugh over that, their moment of amusement found itself cut short before long. By yet another flash of lightning, of course, though more so what the flash revealed. Both Barry and Wally were distracted by what was a wall painting like no other. Especially combined with the flash and crashing sound of the lightning from outside that had revealed it.

Barry and Wally’s eyes both widened with each second that they were able to bare witnesses to the artwork. Unlike other echidna murals and drawings, it was not a mosaic - rather it was entirely drawn across the wall behind the columns with what at least appeared to be paint, of a pure black coloring. Or at the very least what was ancient, aged and darkened red. With so many shadows covering the place, it was difficult to discern properly. 

The painting itself was crude and drawn roughly, though yet still had enough effort put into it that the figures could still be made out whenever the lightning exposed it even briefly. There were 52 circles, each of them huddled around each other as though they were part of a collective. All of them also had abstract shapes drawn onto them, giving the impression that they represented planets. However, this wasn’t the horrifying part - what was horrifying is that approaching them was a more nightmarish figure - an eagle. Flying above the 52 planets, the eagle was drawn entirely in the black or possibly dark red paint with enough detail for the fact it was surrounded by an aura of flame to be made perfectly clear. This flame itself engulfed all 52 of the planets, drenching them in fair as skulls decorated the inside of the flames. At first they seemed like various moons or asteroids, but closer inspection revealed them to be various echidna skulls littering the scene - drawn with enough detail to be near perfect outlines. All of them being drenched in the same fire scorching the various earths. As the lightning repeatedly revealed this painting to the two, their heart rate increased. They couldn’t explain their sudden sense of dread, the strong amount of sheer fear they felt just from staring at this image. Yet they both felt it. 

The foreboding appearance of it whenever the lightning cracked and revealed it made the speedsters just look at it silently with their now widened eyes until the startled and very much nervous Wally turned to his uncle and said in a clearly concerned tone of voice:

“Unc…” he said, “Got any idea?”

“No” Barry answered, shaking his head, “None at all.”

The most terrifying part of this image, which seemed as though it was the image taken directly from a nightmare, was that it invoked more terror in Barry than Darkseid himself ever did. He actually found himself having to swallow down a gulp, just from looking upon an image.

Their moment of contemplating this mysterious, out of place and horrific portrait was itself cut short however - when the sound of Rouge’s voice called out to them from the center of the room:

“Hey!” she exclaimed, “Are you guys coming with us or what?! We’re waiting!”

“Oh!” Wally exclaimed, “Right, yeah! Comin’ right up!”

Of course, Wally proceeded to dash with his incredible speed immediately over to Rouge and Omega’s side. Barry however delayed himself long enough to say in a slower tone of voice:

“Yeah...coming…”

However, the moment Barry tried to speed on over to the others he found his legs suddenly falling numb with nothing short of an instantaneous jolt. Collapsing to the marble ground with a sudden thud, grunting in pain as she soon realized that he had just lost function of both legs.

“Fuck…” was all he could manage to utter from his mouth.

“Barry!” with a gasp, Rouge rushed over to Barry’s side as fast as she could - joined by Omega. Of course, Wall was at his uncle’s side far faster - trying to help the man get back up, albeit struggling due to Barry being a fair bit too heavy for such a young male to carry. Barry grunted as his nephew tried to help him stand up again, holding his thigh as all he could feel from it was pure numbness - that is to say, nothing.

“Damnit” Barry groaned, “Not now...not fucking now…”

“Barry!” Rouge yet again exclaimed, “Are you alright?”

“Well, Barry replied, “It looks like it’s gotten to my legs now...we’re close to the emerald, aren’t we?”

“Well we don;t have any more time to waste!” Rouge responded, “Let’s get you through that transporter now! Omega will have to carry you the rest of the way!”

Barry did not say anything, instead he nodded in response. Being the only one physically able to do so, Omega promptly scooped the speedster up and into his metallic hands - something which Barry had very mixed feelings about. However, he had quite literally no choice.

Much to Barry and Wally’s response, it was the purple orb in the center of the chamber that they walked towards - which as Rouge explained:

“Before you guys ask, yes this is the transporter. Ancient Echidna technology.”

“Ancient Echidnas” Wally remarked, “Yeah still gonna take getting used to.”

Ultimately, using the transporter proved to be about as simple as it’s design. All the group had to do was stand on top of it and allow the technology itself to do the rest. Within an instant, the orb lit up brightly and with the sound of it charging its energy the group followed suit. In what can only be described as teleportation, they were immediately beamed out of the tower and to wherever it was that the teleporter was designed to take them to.

Thankfully, it was in fact just where they needed to be.

The Hidden Palace was, as the name appropriately implies, a massive palace - truly enormous - completely constructed underground, practically compromising the entire interior of Angel Island. A network of lava, magma and crystal populated mines long abandoned by living beings as well as the titular palace area populated by columns, halls, floors of gorgeous bright emerald green, structures and various other forms of opulent, well decorated architecture. The group of Omega, Barry, Rouge and Wally found themselves in a chamber situated amidst the halls of the palace area - of course right atop another transporter. All around them were reflective floors and columns constructed of some unknown material - while the glistening gemstones and crystals of the island’s interior made up the walls as though they were a shining mosaic of ornamental beauty.

“Well” Rouge said as she began walking down the hallway before their eyes, “Here we are, the Hidden Palace.”

“Wow” Wally remarked, his wandering in all directions in order to get a good grasp of his new palatial surroundings, even letting out a whistle as he observed it; “Sure is a palace, alright!”

“Focus, kid” Barry said to his nephew, “Remember why we're here.”

“Unc” Wally responded, “Why would I ever forget?”

Barry chuckled slightly, before grunting in pain after his disease flared up - this time centering in his left hand. He realized he would not have much time left before long, his body slowly betraying him. 

“Uncle Barry? You alright?”

“Nngh” Barry groaned, “Yeah, at least, I will be. Let’s just get to that emerald already.”

Wally nodded, knowing that was indeed the most important thing in the moment. In fact, he turned his attention to Rouge before asking:

“How close are we?”

“We’re practically there” Rouge explained, “The shrine should only be a few corridors away, actually. Of course, it has been a while since last I was here so I might be a little rusty - but trust me, we’ll be there probably in just a few minutes!”

Though Wally and Barry both weren’t entirely happy that they had to risk waiting a few minutes more - ultimately their short wait paid off quite well. That is to say, Rouge’s word proved to actually be rather accurate - it took not much longer than a few minutes worth of walking and traversing the winding, crystalline halls decorated with mosaic murals for the group to come across the grand Altar of the Emeralds. 

The Altar was actually placed in the center of a circular island miles above the lava from the red mountain volcano’s caldera, with it’s gaping crater visible far above it and small stacks of smoke and steam coming up from around it. A single stone bridge served as the method of travelling to and from the location. The structure itself took up most of the small land, though most of it was heavily damaged, ancient ruins such as walls, archways and pillars circling around the main building - withered away by the passage of time. The main building was essentially a large fountain with mutilipe rounded layers, not too different from a multi-level cake in shape, only constructed out of stone. This structure was also surrounded by seven large pillars of the same stone, seemingly meant to hold something atop of them though currently barren. It was on top of the altar, right after the stairway leading up to it, that the emerald lay in the center. Both of the shrine, but also of the pure and clear blue water that mysteriously flowed from the top to the bottom layers of the altar seemingly without a source - though this water was a decent source of ambient waterfall-like sound itself. 

Ultimately, it was the green glow of the emerald itself that altered the group to its presence as they walked into the area. 

“Finally!” Wally exclaimed, though just before he and the others could rush over to the emerald - they were quite abruptly interrupted by a few other voices joining the scene, one calling out to them in an angered shout:

“Hold it right there, that’s close enough!”

“Yeah!” another voice interjected, “Stop right there if you know what’s good for ya!”

Naturally Rouge, Wally and Omega got into their battle stances as soon as these voices called out to them - Barry would have, but he was too busy being rudely dropped onto the hard ground; and of course being essentially unable to move afterwards.

The battle ready stances were soon justified by the arrival of the Chaotix to the scene - and at this point neither Barry nor Wally were surprised to see that they were anthropomorphic beings as well. In the case of Vector, Mighty and Charmy they were a large and imposing green-scaled crocodile even wearing black boots and a golden chain around his neck, a black with red ‘armor’ armadillo with red-white triangular shoes, and a small honey bee - the size of a human toddler though mentally a six year old wearing a vest and a helmet akin to that of a plane pilot.

Upon noticing that it Rouge was among the ‘invading’ group, Vector was quick to inquire about the situation:

“Well well, if it isn’t the bat girl” he remarked in a snarking manner, “I should’ve figured you’d come for the emerald eventually.”

“Yeah!” Charmy childishly spoke up, “And you’re not getting it!”

Rouge rolled her eyes, not intimidated by the glaring group in the slightest - in fact she figured she could take them all on if this were a regular day. However, she had a more pressing situation at hand and promptly explained it to them:

“As much as I would love this to be one of my ‘regular’ visits here, this isn’t one of them. ‘The Flash’ here has caught Ogilvie Syndrome, we’ve only come to help him heal. I was hoping you guys would be a bit more understanding of that.”

Upon hearing the mention of the disease, the Chaotix trio looked at each other with suspicious yet slightly less abrasive looks. They of course did turn their attention towards Barry at least briefly, as he remained on the floor and unable to stand up. While Vector silently pondered the situation, Mighty decided to speak while still being highly suspicious of Rouge’s intentions. As he promptly pointed out:

“How do we know that you’re not trying to make us let our guard down?”

“Mighty, honey” Rouge laughed just a bit, “If I was trying to do that, I would’ve done it already.” - and she of course added a wink to that last statement. While it did make Mighty become flustered for just a bit, he ultimately shook it off and remained firm.

The armadillo tried to say something, but Vector held out his hand as he took up the mantle of speaking instead:

“Alright, we’ll let you guys through” the crocodile said to the group, before turning his gaze entirely to Rouge, “But no makin’ off with the emerald afterwards, capeesh?”

Rouge, with a smirk, gave the reptilian a wink - though it didn’t seem to phase Vector very much at all. Regardless, both Wally and Barry let out sighs of relief - finally, this dilemma would be over.

As Wally and Rouge helped Barry by carrying him towards the shrine, that was what they thought. That this issue would be all over in but a few minutes. That they would be in and out, returning to Soleanna to readjust their focus back on the real villain behind all of this. However, as is the usual case in Barry’s life - things ultimately just weren’t that simple. 

Just as they began to walk the stone steps leading the emerald, four red heat beams were launched from the crater above right down onto them - exploding right in front of them and knocking the three a good distance backwards - not to mention the rubble and debris sent in all directions. Omega, Vector, Mighty and Charmy were just as shocked when they saw it. Omega immediately went to make sure Rouge was alright - which thankfully she was, while Wally stood up on his own - albeit readying himself into a battle stance as two figures began descending from the sky.

Barry looked up at them from the ground as well - and he was not happy with what he saw:

A young, teenage boy with a black stylized fade cut, one bang extending out onto his forehead - with a skin tight spandex jumpsuit that featured a trademark ‘S’ symbol on the chest. It was Superboy. Or at least, his grayscale red-eyed ‘Nega’ counterpart. Beside him though, was a figure Barry was absolutely shocked to see - a female. A young girl, either a teenager or young adult herself, perhaps blonde though her hair was now grayscale. She had long, flowing hair and an outfit which featured a similar appearance to Superboy’s, though it was more feminine, included a cape, consisted of a skirt rather than leggings - though it still featured the House of El symbol upon the girl’s chest. Of course, she was also red-eyed and grayscale, denoting her status as a ‘nega’ being.

Not recognizing her whatsoever, Barry could only remark:

“What...who..”

“You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?” - that voice came from neither Superboy nor the mysterious kryptonian girl. Instead, it came from the voice of a figure who - along with others - dropped from above and surrounded the whole lot with battle ready stances of their own, albeit with the addition of just a dash of sadism.

The five figures were all feminine, female figures - adult, humanoid women to be precise. 

One of them was a woman of olive skin, decently long dark hair, though it was covered by an elaborate, almost shogun or Egyptian styled helmet which seemingly tapered down to her shoulders not too unlike the head of a falcon - two pairs of metal horns on the forehead. Her armor was largely dark blue in coloration with golden trims, with golden and black being used for her breast plates. The rest of her armor was styled in colors of gold, red, dark blue and black.

The other members of the group were composed of a large, bulkier built woman in armor of red and yellow - her hair tied into an easy to manage ponytail which kept the hair away from her eyes; a woman in a more revealing if not erotic outfit of white - sporting a longer ponytail and several strips of her headgear going across her face like some sort of straps while a whip made of steel was brandished in her hands; a green haired woman with a mad, sadistic grin and white armor, her no doubt cruel hands sporting sharp claws like that of an apex predator; last but not least, a blonde woman with crystal blue eyes, sporting white armor and brandishing a sword in either of her hands.

The group didn’t know who these women were, having never met them in this timeline nor the previous. All should know well that they are Big Barda, Stompa, Mad Harriet, Lashina and Glilotina - or more commonly, the Furies. Far off in the distance, a pair of commanding eyes watched though remained high above - observing from the ‘safety’ of the vast expanse of rock that made up the interior of the island. Which for the group facing the Furies, was actually quite fortunate.

“Initiating battle mode” Omega remarked, preparing all of his systems for the inevitable fight - the obvious being painfully clear, after all.

“Smart machine” Big Barda remarked with a sadistic smirk, “Let’s see if it’s strength matches up.”

“Barry” Rouge said to the still grounded speedster while avoiding moving her eyes from the furies - Superboy and Supergirl also circling in the air as she finished with “Head for the emerald.”

“Furies!” Big Barda called out loudly to her cohorts, “Let’s kill them!”

And so, the battle commenced. 

The Furies each lunged at Rouge, Omega, Wally, Vector, Charmy and Mighty while Superboy and Spergirl dove in from above. Barry was left alone, if only because the attackers knew he was already dying regardless - judging it crueler to leave him to his fate. However, this did leave him able to slowly crawl towards the Altar with the only arm of his that still had function - gritting his teeth and grunting as he had to force his full body weight to drag along the ground.

It was no surprise that there was very little that the group could honestly do to the furies - let alone the furies combined with what was essentially two kryptonians. However, they still managed to put up at least a semblance of a fight against them.

Rouge managed to dodge Gilotina dropping towards her with her swords by leaping and flying into the air - though this only resulted in her being rammed into by Supergirl, with the two crashing into one of the Hidden Palace walls, it crumbling into rubble and dust as Supergirl proceeded to overpower Rouge with her sheer superior strength - her punches knocking more and more wind out of Rouge with each individual smack onto her body. The bat thief only escaping the repeated punches by pillowing out a small fist sized bomb from her suit. It’s explosion was non-fatal, but was enough to send Supergirl away at least temporarily. Rouge of course had to attempt in catching her breath - before having to yet again use her wings to dodge the heat beams emitted from Supergirl’s eyes. 

With the others, things weren’t going so well either. Wally found himself effectively racing the Superboy could travel at least with a similar speed, though Wally was running just barely faster than him - mostly slowed only by having to dodge repeated blasts from the boy’s own heat vision. Naturally, Wally was sure to comment on this:

“I take it that you’re the Superboy I heard so much about earlier, and that you’re not on our side at the moment.”

In response he received another beam that he had to dodge.

“Got it. Guess I’m kickin’ your ass instead.”

Wally then changed his tactics - performing a U-turn so that he was running directly at the Superboy. Of course, the half-kryptonian was ready for him and charged at him in return. Wally however was smart enough to jump into the air just before the other boy could land a devastating punch to his face. 

However, just before Wally was about to deliver an attack to Superboy he was truck by Lashina’s steel whip - lashing his back , making him write in pain before dropping to the ground. He hardly had time to hiss before Suuperboy was then on top of him, delivering several painful punches to his ribs - knocking the wind out of the speedster, before picking him up and flipping him brutally to the other side of the floor. There was little Wally could do besides grunt and hiss, though he did manage to speed out of Superboy’s grasp before he could be roundhouse kicked to the head and actually did manage to instead ram into Superboy - knocking them both to the ground, though Wally maintained a battle stance.

“You’re lucky the other titans aren’t here.”

The Superboy, getting up and glaring at Wally, didn’t appear to be phased nor intimidated - the two cut this chatter short as they then charged at each other once again.

While those two clashed, the others battled all around them. Omega was surprisingly able to hold his own against Big Barda, his metallic claws clashing with her blades and his armor withstanding her blows with minimal damage. Likewise, she herself was hardly phased by any of his weapons either way - even though they both dodged most of the other’s attacks when they weren’t locked in a close-combat clash. 

“You’re quite formidable for a machine” Big Barda remarked while she stared down at Omega while they clashed one another’s hands and blades, “But I’m afraid that won’t save you!”

“I am the ultimate Eggman robot, we will be seeing about that” - Omega promptly rebutted, Big Barda adding gritting her teeth to her pre-existing glare.

Their clash was briefly interrupted however, when Lashina - having just wrapped her whip around Mighty just to grab him by the neck and viciously toss him several feet away and painfully to the ground, decided to attempt the same trick on Omega.

However, all that she succeeded in doing was wrapping her whip around one of Omega’s hands - purely because the robot himself had grabbed onto it not long after it was launched in his direction. Before Lashina or Barda could make any further moves, Omega pulled the former close to him - and used her like a swinging weapon to smash her directly into Big Barda. As both women fell to the ground however, Omega was charged at by Gilotina, attempting to stab him with her blades - Omega however leaped into the air and blasted at her by turning his hands into machine guns - not causing any permanent damage to her though succeeding in pushing her back just before his hands were turned into rocket launchers, weapons which naturally proved more effective at creating distance between the two albeit causing a large explosion and minor crater in the ground. 

It was then that Omega turned and saw that Supergirl and Rouge were clashing in mid air as well, constantly ramming into one another and briefly battling in a form of aerial combat. Naturally, Rouge stood little chance and it wasn’t long before she was knocked clean to the ground like a volleyball being ‘spiked’ to the ground. Supergirl would have fired her heat beams at her if she weren’t struck by a missile fired by Omega before she could fire them from her eyes. 

Her attention grabbed, within a matter of seconds it was her and the more formidable Omega clashing in the air. 

All while the scene erupted into conflict all around him, Barry persevered, crawling with but one arm up the steps - grunting and hissing with each step that he made it past. He would to duck against various fyling debris and shield his eyes from the flahses of incoming explosions, but he focused entirely on crawling step by step towards the Master Emerald.

As much as it hurt him, in his condition there was nothing he could do to help. Though, he wasn’t sure that even he would be able to help hold off the Furies. 

“Ugh” he groaned, “Ngh” he grunted and hissed, beginning to struggle now with forging complete sentences, frightening him as he was unsure if his lungs or his vocal chord was beginning to shut down, “Gotta...get...to...the emerald...not...much time….left..”

While he made it roughly halfway up the steps, he couldn’t help but take note of how strange the water of the altar was - it seemed to be having ripples as though things were dripping softly into it, though was doing so without any actual provocation. In fact, it was doing this so much and so rapidly that the sound of it could be heard by the grown speedster.

As if this wasn’t enough, just taking a few seconds to look closely at the water was enough for Barry to feel as though this was not a natural body of liquid - though another explosion from Omega’s weapons reminded him to keep climbing.

By a miracle, or perhaps through his sheer will, his remaining arm maintained its function. 

His journey did not go unnoticed however, as Mad Harriet spotted him. Intending on ensuring his death, the crazed fury lunged for him - though was intercepted when Mighty rolled and bounced into her, slamming her down to the ground before the Altar like that of a wrecking ball. With a glare aimed at her, the armadillo taunted:

“Pick a fight with someone your own size.”

“Gladly” - Harriet didn’t break her gaze now her grin, and instead lunged at Mighty like a leopard in the jungle. He managed to avoid getting slashed by her claws via fast movements with his feet, and eventually he evaded another lunge by rolling into his ball state and much like the blue blur using that to yet again strike her to the ground - this time from behind.

Turning to see how the others were doing he was able to see Vector and Rouge holding their own together against Big Barda and Gilotina, though clearly taking more damage and sporting a share of cuts, bruises and even some minor bleeding. With Rouge now having to hold one of her harms, it was ultimately Vector who, with his more durable skin was more able to keep up against the powerful duo.

There was also Charmy however, who was dealing with the large woman known as Stompa. Thanks to his small size and ability to fly, he was capable of avoiding most of her attacks during this entire time, however Stompa was no idiot. Eventually she did more than merely swat the immature bee away from her. Eventually, in the middle of Charmy taking some time to childishly spit a raspberry at her, she angrily grabbed him into a hand - catching him off guard and nearly crushing him from the sheer power of her grip. His stinger was deployed instinctively, though hardly had any effect on her durable Apokoloptian skin.Within seconds thereafter, Charmy was thrown directly to the ground. So hard did he smack the cold, hard ground that the poor thing struggled to even get up again - his wings bent and legs left twitching as he tried. He did not have much time either, as Stompa was already preparing for one of her feet to slam down onto him.

Seeing this, and seeing that Wally was still occupied with Superboy - albeit getting caught and literally pummeled brutally into one of the walls, and Vector and Rouge were losing their battle of attrition with their two opponents, Mighty took it upon himself to rescue Charmy - bringing himself yet again into his ball state and dashing straight for him. He managed to catch Charmy just in time before Stompa’s foot came down - whisking the six year old away from certain death and putting him down at the foot of the altar’s steps before turning to Stompa with a silent, angered glare. Charmy, regaining focus, thanked his friend and savior:

“Thanks, Mighty..”

“Don’t mention it, Chamy” Mighty remained focused entirely on the enemies at hand - rushing back into battle. However, none of those in the room could have known that this moment would have lasted much longer. 

Rolling into a ball and ramming directly into Stompa’s chest, Mighty was initially able to send the large woman back a fair bit - however the woman was far bigger and far more muscular than he was - and eventually after about four strikes to her chest she was able to time Mighty’s repeat attack just right - lifting her foot and kicking him both out of ball form and onto the ground, where he slid right to the edge of the ground, overlooking a cliff leading to the lava of the island’s central volcano - the vast ‘mountain’ they were inside of.

Getting up, Mighty found himself not only struggling but also coughing up blood onto the floor beneath him.

Realizing however that Stompa was rushing towards him, he realized he hadn’t any time to waste. He managed to escape being stomped on by her feet, but was smacked in the back by the slapping of but one of her hands. He let out another hiss as he slid yet again across the ground, almost like that of a rag doll.

Still finding it within him to glare defiantly at his enemy, he found it within him to get up onto his feet even though they were twitching and shivering, weakened by how strong the woman was. Even though he was coughing up more of his own blood that found itself staining the corners of his mouth - he was intending to stand firm against this threat up until the bitter end.

It was sad then, how close his end came.

Just as he and Stompa were having their stand-off,waiting for the perfect moment to strike at one another again, another member of the Furies took advantage of Mighty’s distraction. Mad Harriet, to be precise. With Mighty having his eyes focused on Stompa, he wasn’t paying attention when Harriet attacked him from the side. He managed to grab one of her clawed hands, but was unable to stop the other when it lunged itself directly into his chest - impaling upon it both of his lungs with a third sharp, almost knife-like claw stabbing into his heart.

With his vital organs penetrated, he coughed up blood one last time just as Harriet with her ever sadistic grin plunged her bladed claws in deeper. The dying armadillo gurgled as he tried to let out a painful cry, letting go of her other arm as he tried to vain to pull her impaling one out - though she only drilled it in deeper in response. It didn’t take long for Charmy to see what was going on and promptly let out a shocked, outright horrified response:

“Mighty? Mighty?! MIGHTY?!”

There was nothing that he could do, however. Nothing save for sitting there with tearful widened eyes as Mad Harriet finally retraced her hand, allowing the blood to pour from Mighty’s wounds as the once strong armadillo fell over - first onto his knees, and then onto his sides. It was but a few seconds more when his shocked eyes finally weakened and closed, his entire body falling lifeless and relaxed as though it were falling into a deep, eternal sleep with one final breath. Charmy was young, but he fully comprehended what this meant as tears fell from his eyes:

“Mighty…” he whimpered…”no…”

The last anyone would ever see of Mighty THE was his corpse being kicked over the edge of the cliff, sending it miles below into the lava of the Red Mountain’s expansive caldera. Hia cruel killers now walking towards the others, no longer occupied with him.

Vector and Rouge had similar responses as they overheard what was going on - to disastrous effects.

“YOU MOTHER-” Vector couldn’t even finish his sentence before Big Barda managed to create a bleeding scar across his chest and kick him directly to the ground within a matter of seconds - just as Gilotina stabbed Rouge in the side while she was distracted:

“Agh!” Rouge hissed before she was kicked to the ground, holding her non-fatal though still incredibly painful stab wound, falling to the ground besides Vector, both of them looking up at the two they were fighting.

Seconds later, Wally was thrown into the pile as well, having proved to be no match for the Superboy. He too had an exuberant amount of bruises and scrapes across his body - in addition to being beaten so thoroughly that he was too exhausted to use his super speed to continue the fight.

Unfortunately, Omega did not last much longer in the fight either. While he was surprisingly able to remain on equal footing with the Supergirl, even sustaining her mighty punches and kicks though they did send him flying rapidly with each landed strike - he was overwhelmed once Superboy was freed to join his relative in battle. He attempted a swirling flamethrower attack once he saw the boy charging at him, though this only kept both of them at bay for a few seconds before Supergirl came in from above and drop kicked him. His jet system was able to break his descent so he could fire a round missiles at Supergirl - though Superboy used hurricane strength winds from his breath to send them to one of the mountain walls instead.Omega’s machine gun bullets were also utterly useless against them as well. In the end, Omega joined the pile when he spent too much time focusing his fire on Superboy - leaving himself open to a headbutt from Supergril that sent him down to the ground alongside Rouge, Wally and Victor. He even said, in a slightly damaged tone of voice:

“Systems damaged...battle unsustainable…”

“Those are some very literal last words” Big Barda remarked as she looked over the defeat group, a smirk plastered on her face, “I hope the rest of you realize you’re going to join your ‘friend’ there in a few seconds.”

The chuckle that her and the rest of the Furies had at that moment wasn’t anything but sadistic as they already thought of how best to do away with their prey - who all closed their eyes in acceptance of their defeats. Except for Charmy, who was watching this with hands to his mouth in sheer terror. Broken after watching such a good friend of his perish.

However, he would be spared having to watch a full on slaughter, as it didn’t take long for Big Barda to notice that Barry had reached the top of the altar, and was mere seconds away from touching his fingertips with the master emerald. He had managed to slip by unnoticed by those battling, and had in fact missed out on virtually all of it. However, the determination in his eyes remained unchallenged.

Be that as it may though, Barda still turned to Gilotina and motioned with a gesture of her head for her to deal with the situation. Gilotina gave a nod in response before leaping into action.

It wasn’t even a minute, not even a second, before the sound of an agonizing crunch followed by Barry’s hiss of pain was heard - Gilotina’s foot forcing Barry’s last functioning hand down to the ground against his will. Gritting his teeth, he looked up at the smirking blonde warrior while saying to her in a challenging tone, or at least an attempt at one:

“Just get it over with, kill me, since that’s what you already plan to do.”

However, Gilotina just morphed her smirk into something of a grin as she answered coldly:

“Nah, watching you die more slowly is much more satisfying.”

Barry was soon letting out screams of pain as she purposely crushed his hand further, taking delight in his suffering as any being of Apokoliops would. She wasn’t going to give him the qucik, easy death. No, she wanted to hear his cries as his disease slowly killed him, all while he was mere moments away from reaching his cure. The sound of the storm outside echoed through the shaft of the mountain while he hissed and howled beside the sound of his hand continuing to be crushed under Gilotina’s cruel feet.

Of course, the other Furies were at the same time closing in on those who they defeated - their makeshift allies circling around in the air, watching over the entire ordeal. Rouge and Vector closed their eyes in acceptance of their fates, while Charmy covered his eyes like a child hiding from the monster beneath his bed.

None of them could have expected what was going to happen next however, as the Furies’ plan was interrupted not by a sudden resurgence of morale but instead by the water from the Altar coming alive - splashing Gilotina in the face with a blast powerful enough to send her flying several feet backwards into the air and landing on the ground with both a loud, booming crash and subsequent cloud of dust.

All of the others’ attention was grabbed, fixated on the Altar as the water stopped flowing and left the altar entirely, forming itself into a creature in it’s own right - a creature seemingly made entirely of liquid, seemingly water though that of course was debatable. What mattered was that this creature a simple build - it was slim yet muscular, with a rounded head sporting two large ‘fins’ extending from the back of it’s head, with a third one forming on the top, and small triangular extensions on either of it’s cheeks, coming off the sides of it’s two glowing emerald green eyes. It sported thick forearms with three claw-like fingers and finally sported two claw-like toes on it’s watery feet. It did not speak, but managed to make a gurgling, enraged growl at those who attacked the altar - seemingly ignoring Barry entirely. Barry of course, was completely stupefied at what was happening.

The Furies were also just as confused, though they were never ones to be easily scared.

In fact, they quite enjoyed the new challenge:

“Well, looks like we have another one for the pile” Big Barda remarked, unphased by the threat before her eyes, “Furies, you know what to do.”

Indeed they did, though they also had no idea what it was they were dealing with. Just as Gilotina got up with an angry growl, Lashina and Mad Harriet moved to confront the water beast directly. A slash of Lashina’s whip seemingly managed to dissipate the being’s forearms, while Mad Harriet dissipated it’s entire body by merely pouncing and swiping away at it with her.

However, there was the fact that it’s body was made of either water or an energy similar in properties to it. That is to say, the creature merely reformed inbetween the two of them and grabbed them with it’s arms - wrapping them in it’s watery grasp before violently tossing both of them to the ground below the Altar. Lashina attempted upon recovery to use her whip once more, though this time the creature reacted more swiftly by using it’s other arm to blast her in the face and to the ground before she could respond further. It was enough force to send her spiraling into the side of the mountain wall as well as give her the sensation of wiping out during a tidal wave - essentially giving her severe whiplash.

The being then turned his attention to Mad Harriet, who yet again tried to pounce onto it. However the being reduced itself to a puddle and moved quickly out of her area, before reforming and pouncing on her before she could recover. Within a matter of seconds the fury member was trapped in a bubble of water, being punched about repeatedly in increasingly fast strikes until she was literally popped out of the bubble - jettisoned like a torpedo towards a charging Stompa, making a direct hit to her ally’s chest and sending both of them carailing into the palace wall behind them, in fact they slammed directly into one of the mosaic murals that decorated many of the walls.

With the creature reforming into its base form, it was clear to Big Barda and Gilotina that they ought to take it more seriously. The surviving Chaotix and Wally however, were just stunned that it was happening. Wally himself asked:

“What’s going on? What is that thing?”

“That kid” Rouge explained, “Is Chaos.”

“Thankfully for us it looks like he’s on our side” Vector added in, still stunned though in a grateful tone. Still, Chaos was no laughing matter. It was clear that what the Fury’s had done brought him great rage - he wasn’t going to stop until they were gone. However, they were not a group that retreated easily.

Jumping from its perch and onto the ground before the altar, Chaos was soon having a more proper stand off against Big Barda and Gilotina, as well as a recovering Lashina. Gilotina was stunned by how easily this creature was faring against them, though like Barda was through underestimating it. She still vocalized her surprise:

“This thing is made of fucking water, we should have killed it by now!”

“Patience, Gilotina” Barda said without breaking eye contact with Chaos, “We’ll accomplish that in due time.”

The stand-off continued for a few moments more - Chaos growling at the intruders angrily while they shared glares at one another. It wasn’t until Lashina yet again lashed her whip out at Chaos that they made a move to attack him. With one of his legs dissipated by the whip, both Gilotina and Big Barda lunged at him, brandishing their weapons and yet again seemingly dissipating his entire body within a few slashes to his individual parts.

Just as they recovered their breaths and smirked in their ‘victory’ however, did Chaos’ various puddles form into three decent sized ones - before these puddles became emergent streams of airborne liquid propelling themselves directly at them. Big Barda had seen this and successfully moved out of the way - though Lashina and Gilotina were not so lucky. Within moments the two were trapped in a collective puddle of Chaos’ body fluid, as the beast used various tendrils from this watery blob to grab them an brutalize them in various ways - be it tossing them from one tentacle to another or outright pummeling them violently into the ground repeatedly. Or of course, both being accomplished. Either way the two Furies hardly had the time to process what was happening before they were yanked around by the beasts’ shifting appendages, tossed and flipped about as though they were but toys. In the end they were lifted high in the air and slammed back down to the ground before it was clear that they would not be defeating Chaos. Only then did Chaos reform into its base form and yet again face a surprised yet battle ready Big Barda.

Facing her liquid enemy, Big Barda responded to another one of it’s bubbling, gurgling growls with her own:

“Let’s see if your watery body holds up when I send you to Hell!”

Chaos only growled again in response, before sending one of his forearms like a bungee cord corralling towards Barda. Standing her ground, Barda was able to dissipate this arm with one of her blades - though another cone came directly after it. She had to jump over it with not enough time to strike at it, but was able to dissipate the other arm when it came for her afterwards.

Of course, Chaos then proceeded to launch both of his arms at her in an attempt to grab her, though she managed to leap into the air before it could do so. Chaos leaped into the air to pounce onto her, though her blade ripped through his body with relatively ease. Albeit, it’s body reformed immediately afterwards and a kick from Chaos’ leg was strong enough to send Barda flying to the ground.

Chaos didn’t even give Barda enough time to get up before blasting her with another powerful stream of water - sending her spiraling into the steps of the Altar. Charmy quickly moved out of the way, having gone to Wally, Omega, Rouge and Vector by this point. Barda meanwhile still managed to stand onto her feet however, and it was with a face of determination that she glared at the creature and brandished her apokoliptian axe in her hand, charging at Chaos with full intent of destroying it.

She was of course joined by Superboy and Supergirl, who having seen what Chaos was doing so far decided to fire their heat beams at him from a distance - though this was to ill effect. In fact, it caused Chaos’ body to heat up until it was boiling temperature. It didn’t take Barda long to realize what would happen if she touched a boiling, bubbling water monster - and so she began to take an approach of avoiding skin contact through dodging Chaos’ lunges and attacks. She even made a point to yell at the Supers flying above:

“You idiots! You literally just fucking heated this asshole up!”

It got them to stop using their heat vision, though their next decision proved to not be much better. 

Just as Barda leaped over Chaos to avoid a grapple from both of his still broiling clutches, Superboy and Superboy both charged at him from either side. They managed to dissipate his body with one combined strike - though it only served to splatter his broiling hot waters onto them instead.

Naturally, this caused them immense pain. In fact, their shrieks and screams as even the smallest droplets of water burned their skin echoed throughout the enter mountain - even above the thunderous lightning. It ultimately caused the two to fall and writhe along the ground, holding their faces and bodies in pain as they themselves began to dissipate to nothing before everyone’s eyes - though it wasn’t lost on Wally that Supergirl seemed to flash normal colors - her skin turning to a flesh color and her hair a vibrant blonde - before she and Superboy both became clouds of darkness that then turned into nothing. Perhaps Superboy did the same, though Wally was completely fixated on the girl. It made his eyes widen in both wonder and shock, though he hadn’t enough time to contemplate it. Either way, the two were gone from the picture - leaving Barda still standing as Chaos’ opponent.

Albeit, Chaos was no longer broiling - though this didn’t make Barda any less cautious about how she approached the remainder of this fight. As she stared her enemy down once more though, carrying her axe within her hands, it wasn’t until she saw something from the corner of her eye; Barry, the adult speedster whom everyone had forgotten about in the madness that had just begun unfolding. In the time it took for that long battle to run its course, Barry managed to regain enough strength in his arm to pull himself closer to the Master Emerald. Closing his eyes intensely as he reached out for the emerald, he thought desperately about how much he absolutely needed this disease of his to be over - not just for himself, for all of those who depended on him as well. Wally, Iris, his friends both new and old, as well as those who he protected as the Flash. They needed him. He refused to let them down without a fight.

There was nothing Barda nor anyone could do - before long Barry’s finger touched the hard yet inviting - if not celestial, surface of the Master Emerald. Just as the emerald glowed and radiated its energy brightly, not only did Barry begin feeling a surge of cleaning, healing and even godly energy rush through every fiber of his being - but he also soon felt a massive jolt of a heated yet familiar energy.

Spiraling down the shaft of Red Mountain, a loud, powerful bolt of what at first glance was a lightning landed directly on the Master Emerald; adding true speed force energy to the Master Emerald’s own. Not only was Barry being cleansed by the emerald, but soon he was grunting and howling out as the familiar shock of being blasted by the speed force also surged throughout his body. Though his screams made Wally want to rush over to him, Rouge shook her head and silently urged him not to do so.

The shock of it all made him feel far more energized than he had ever felt in a long time. The two energies pulsated throughout his body and coursed through his veins just as his nerves and blood cells did. Every last ounce of the poison Mephiles had infected him with was eradicated, allowing his muscles, organs and bones to return not only to being functioning but also being in a state of what can best be described as a sugar rush. Except not with sugar, but rather with far longer lasting better feeling energies.

While the emerald’s energy healed him, the speed force energy restored his true power. Gone were the flashes of purple, and back was his original eyesight. Gone was the suit he had to make under false pretenses, back was both the golden ring with his emblem on it as well as the red suit which spawned out of it - perfectly forming around his body just as his previous one did, only it felt much better when it hugged and clasped on his skin. As the spandex clinged to his skin it didn’t feel like a mere suit, it felt like a part of him had just come back. A part of him that he had thought lost during the previous timeline’s war, and a part that he was more than happy to have back.

While Barry for a renegade bolt of speed force energy found its way into striking him, making Rouge and Vector both visibly gasp as they witnessed Wally scream in what sounded like severe pain; his head convulsing backwards as he let out his agonizing shrieks. Rouge was concerned for the boy, though remained at her current distance due to the potential danger of her getting electrocuted. In the end however, Wally would soon feel just the same as Barry. His burns would heal near instantly, and once he did he would feel as though he was truly himself again; even if he wasn’t aware a part of him had been missing.

A third speed force bolt was also sent out into the sky from the Master Emerald, though none of those present in that chamber would witness where it landed.

Only after what felt like a grueling hour - but was actually only a few moments if not a minute, did the light show of green, yellow and blue come to an end. Barry was sent back flying to the foot of the steps, while Wally was laid out on his back - both of them having stacks of smoke coming from their bodies. Any burns however managed to heal quite rapidly. Everyone, even Chaos, remained distracted by what had just happened; that is until the speedsters began to stir again.

“Barry?” Rouge, still holding her side where she was stabbed at as she called out to the adult speedster with great concern, “Barry, Wally, are you guys okay?!”

There was no immediate response from either of them. At first, this was unsettling - however just when they were about to be written off as passed did their bodies both turn into blurs of super fast moving wind - blasting wind in Rouge, Omega, Vector and Charmy’s faces while confirming to all that they were not only alive- but with the help of the Speed Force stronger than ever.

Barda could do little beyond growl before she was rammed by a direct hit from Barry, followed by one from Wally and finally one from both of them in the short span of mere seconds as she stumbled into the grasp of Chaos. Working in tandem with the speedsters, Chaos chucked the hollering Barda into the air - where Barry began to turn his arms into swirling vortexes of wind, using these tornadoes to send Barda higher into the air towards the opening of the mountain. He was unable to send her up and over the top - though another blast from Chaos’ arms combined with the man-made tornado was enough to accomplish that.

Lashina, Mad Harriet, Gilotina and Stompa were still around of course - though with them regaining their consciousness they were actually quite easy for the three to take on. In fact, they even had assistance from a recharged Omega.

Omega was successfully able to bring down Stompa by firing grappling cables onto her, and using his own strength to force her into the path of Wally and Barry’s combined tornadoes - allowing Chaos’ bursts of water to accomplish the rest. As for Gilotina, Lashina and Mad Harriet they were taken out in a very similar manner to Barda - being rammed by Wally and Barry’s super speed before they could even do much in the way of reacting - and the combined powers of the speedsters and Chaos accomplished the rest in getting them far away from the Altar of the emerald.

Though true that they, as far as the group knew, were still on the island upon their eventually landing - they left not long afterwards, both them and the unseen figure which observed the fight from afar retreating to mysterious whereabouts.

However, the victory in forcing the Furies into retreat was a bittersweet one. Just as Wally and Barry admired their victory did their attention turn to the sound of Charmy sobbing. Traumatized by what he had just seen, the child’s only comforter was Vector who patted him on the shoulder - a look of not knowing what to do plastered on his face as he somberly shook his head.

Neither Wally or nor Barry knew what to do, looking to the duo with the greatest of sympathies. Perhaps especially Barry, who knows very well what the horrors of watching friends perish felt like. 

Rouge, still holding her side, turned to Vector and approached with her brow locked in a sympathetic look, her words being spoken softly:

“Vector, is there anything we can do for you guys?”

Opening his eyes to look at Rouge, Vector was quick and firm with his response:

“No, not really” he said, “Best you guys can do is let me set this out. I can tell you guys have other things you’re supposed to be doin’, I’m not gonna keep you from doin’ them.”

“Alright, if you’re sure…”

“I am.”

Rouge put her head down briefly, as did Barry and Wally. The group of Rouge, Omega, Wally and Barry began to then head away from the altar area after Rouge motioned the others to follow her with a gesture of his hands.

There was little point in staying - they had a greater evil to stop, that much was true. From what they could see, Vector was going to see the situation handled. Best to his abilities, anyway. The pair aso had Chaos, who seemed to sympathize with them as it stayed by their side silently and peacefully - offering it’s hand to Charmy the last time Barry looked in their direction while he walked away with the others in his group

Heading back towards the transporter that they came from, it was a mere amount of seconds before Rouge was hunching over, wincing and hissing in pain as she held at her stab wound. Barry and Wally, naturally concerned, went to her sides and it was Wally who spoke to her first:

“Are you gonna be okay, Rouge?”

“Ngh, yeah” Rouge assured them, “The wound’s thankfully not fatal, it’ll just hurt for a while.”

“Hold on” Barry remarked, suddenly speeding off for a few seconds before any of the others could respond. When he returned moments later, he had in his hands a torn off piece of his costume, just enough of it for the purpose he intended to use it for. Kneeling in front of Rouge he said softly “Here” as he then wrapped it tightly around her torso - forging from it a makeshift tourniquet for until she could get it more properly patched up. She winced slightly while he put it around her, though only once. Once it was snugly around her body, she smiled at Barry:

“Thanks.”

“No problem” Barry smiled back as he stood up, looking back at the transporter they used to enter the island in the first place, “So, we’re heading back to Soleanna I assume?”

“Of course” Rouge nodded, “Not much left for us to do here, and by the way that was quite a light show you had with the emerald.”

“Yeah, let’s just say that it was a very familiar light show” Barry smirked as he answered, “A lot more familiar than Mephiles torturing me with that fucking poison energy.”

“True that” Wally answered, “I feel stronger and faster than before, even!”

“Yeah...I do too….but speaking of Mphiles, there’s something that concerns me.”

“Huh?” Rouge raised a brow, “What?”

“He had those...red-eyed, evil minions when me and Shadow were fighting him. They were like the people I knew from the previous timeline, only evil and soulless. The thing is...I didn’t recognize that girl. She was a kryptonian, like Clark and Conner, only...I thought Clark was the last Kryptonian alive. I have no idea who that girl is.”

“Kryptonian?”

“It’s an alien race from the planet Krypton. It’s also a very long story, don’t really got the time to explain it right now.”

“I see...well, how much of a problem is it that Mephiles has-”

“Trust me” Barry said sternly, “It’s a problem.”

Wally just silently nodded in response - not sure of what else to say, but knowing very well that it was in fact a problem if Mephiles had more kryptonians serving him - in fact the fact he seemingly had Superman alone seemingly serving him was a problem. Rouge could see the looks on their faces, and after a moment she said to them:

“Alright then, let’s get back to Shadow then, we’ll certainly be needing him around if we’re going to finish any of this.”

Nodding, Barry and Wally followed right after Rouge and Omega in stepping on the transporter and returning to the tower where they had arrived in on. Upon returning to it, they could see and hear that the storm had subsided not long after their battle had completed - the rain and lightning having left while the clouds were just beginning to part so that the late afternoon sun could return. Of course, the sky was now a much deeper red-orange as the sun was now much closer to vanishing over the horizon, denoting that night was not too far away at all.

Stepping outside to witness the beauty that was this mid stage sunset, it was only then that Rouge turned to the speedsters with a look of just having remembered one important detail:

“Wait!” she exclaimed, “How are we gonna get you guys over to Soleanna?”

Barry in response just smirked:

“Don’t worry, you guys take the air. Me and the kid will figure something out, right?”

A smirking Wally nodded in response - leaving Rouge visibly confused. Omega however just casually responded:

“Understood.”

It wasn’t very long before Rouge and Omega saw what the two had meant. While Rouge and Omega took to the skies, with Rouge feeling pain though through her will power staying properly in the air, Wally and Barry meanwhile traversed the levitating ruins and neighboring ‘Windy Valley’ area with their super speed. Traversing actual pathways of wind, various spirals and lips, trampolines, towers, temples and other such structures until they were able to locate a pathway low enough for them to run across the water, of course leaving a trial of fast moving waves in their wake just as a high speed boat would.

To Rouge and Omega’s amazement the two of them were indeed, following them by running across the water of the ‘Nile Ocean’ itself. After getting over the brief surprise of this, Rouge turned immediately Omega as she asked him an important question:

“Omega, how long should it take us to reach Soleanna?”

“Approximately four hours travelling at maximum speed, provided we keep heading in this direction - as it will not be as long as travelling with the helicopter.”

“Got it…”

Though of course, looking ahead of her and towards the gradually setting sun all Rouge thought to herself was but one thing:

_I hope Shadow’s doing alright..._


	10. The Solaris Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow POV chapter. Investigating why Eggman is seemingly looking for "him", Shadow finds himself embroiled in a fight between Sonic and two assassins sent by a certain demonic being to kill him. Intervening in their hunt, Shadow takes these two to the past so the three of them can uncover major details regarding what happened in Soleanna 10 years ago as well as just what exactly Mephiles is.

_ Mephiles… _

_ Who is he? _

_ What is he? _

_ What is he planning? _

_ Does Commander Goode have anything to do with this? _

Those were Shadow the Hedgehog’s first thoughts as he split off from Barry, Rouge, Wally and Omega and went off on his own. Unlike them, he needed no vehicle to leave the Kalinske, instead all he needed was the pair of hover shoes he nearly perpetually wore over his feet. With little more than his thoughts they activated and allowed him to leap off the edge of the ship’s deck and skate across the waters of the sea, heading directly back to Soleanna’s New City district. All of this being done without so much of a word, as he had little reason to speak with the various soldiers and crew members walking around the ship, he came across literally nobody of any serious note. 

Nor did he have the time for it, either.

He had far more important things to worry about. 

Upon arriving at the nearest wooden dock of Soleanna’s New City, Shadow wasted no time in walking towards the steel, brick and mortar forest of high rises, apartments and the occasional skyscraper. The only thing of note about his immediate surroundings were the various docked boats - ranging from small sailing boats to fishing vessels, all of them forced into port by the blockade. Shadow paid them much mind - a delayed fishing season was hardly a price to pay for the safe return of their duchess.

He still found it hard to believe that the New City district was a properly functioning city; the main section of it was designed like any ordinary metropolis, though completely banned automobiles as if solely to justify the large green doors used to separate it from the Castle Town. While it was true that the Western Half of the city allowed Automobiles to be used and even housed a highway system, Shadow wasn’t concerning himself with it as none of his current business had to deal with that section of the island. The Train Station was located on the far side of the Eastern half of New City, and as such that was where he headed.

None of the city really interested him on this short yet tedious quest of his.

None of the buildings stood out from the other, all of them blending into a scene of standard, rectangular architecture with seldom any actual cultural influences at all. When it came to the historic Castle Town, there was at least traditional Soleannan styling - yet here, everything was dreadfully bland that it appeared as if none of those in charge of construction even bothered spending a single cent towards being aesthetically pleasing at all. It was all just a repetitive sea of brick, mortar, steel, asphalt and concrete. The only unique areas would be the warehouse district in the far north, the docks in the far east, and the train station in the center - where he was headed towards.

As a whole though, the appearance of such a dull metropolitan location was enough to turn a relatively short walk into an hour long slog.

It didn’t help Shadow feel any less irritated about having to spend any extended period of time here. However, he was not one to complain about things such as aesthetics or architecture much - at least, not openly.

_ Even Westopolis is more lively than this place, and that city is a crime infested cesspit. _

Shadow huffed, though there wasn’t much else to say about Soleanna.

He assumed, perhaps correctly, that New City wasn’t the part of Soleanna that the tourists actually came to see. Especially not with everything currently going on.

It wasn’t but a few moments after those thoughts crossed through his mind however that something was able to catch his attention and change his expression from his usual indifference to one of moderate surprise. Just as he reached the wide asphalt road that led him directly towards the train station, all he could see were the remnants of what appeared to be a battle.

_ What happened here? _

He asked that mentally, though the surroundings told their tale ever silently.

There were scorch marks decorating the area in various small bursts - be they along buildings, the road, or even the walls of the mountain which the station was built directly into. It’s light, stone and metallic built terminal was mostly intact though the entrance sported notable black marks denoting an explosion or burst of flame had severely damaged it. Further decorating the place were a large number of Soleanna royal guardsmen; all of the men were scattered around the place as though they had been violently thrown about without much rhyme or reason.Some of them also sported burn marks across their exposed faces - while others sported no doubt broken limbs or worse due to being slammed so violently against the nearby palm trees or the concrete sidewalk around them. The small tunnels that made up the the terminals heading into the greater underground portion of the terminal had no barriers keeping one from entry - seemingly they had been ripped straight from where they were and used was weaponry against the guards, based on the fact that some of the groaning or unconscious men had horrendously bleeding gashes fitting for something of that shape and size being tossed at them.

Shadow counted at least twenty guardsmen in the immediate area as he walked his way towards the terminal. All of them either groaning in pain, unconscious, or perhaps even worse. Most of them did well enough to ignore him, though just as he was about to step foot in the entrance of the station one of the men grabbed at his leg.

Shadow was caught off guard, but looked at this man nonetheless. He was quite pathetic - sporting cuts from broken window glass across his face, and his dark green uniform was polluted with ash and soot. Judging by how he only used one of his arms and neither of his legs it was evident he had either broken or sprained those respective limbs. The man’s voice was just as weak to come out of him as Shadow had expected, he was practically speaking with a stutter:

“You...you need...nobody...is allowed...in the station...it is...closed…”

Shadow closed his eyes and shook his head, before tugging his leg easily away from the man, turning to him and asking him in a stern voice:

“What happened here?”

The man however, in perhaps typical Soleanna guardsmen fashion, only responded with:

“N-N-None of your business!” he managed to exclaim, “T-The S-Station is closed! G-G-Go back the other way! N-Now!”

Flabbergasted by this response, though quickly rolling his eyes, Shadow decided to pay the man absolutely no mind and instead continue on his way. His thoughts echoed his sentiment of having absolutely no regrets:

_ I don’t have time for this. _

However, the guardsmen, despite having to drag himself with only one useable arm, still tried to keep hold of the black hedgehog’s attention:

“W-w-wait” he continued to stutter, trying his best to weakly shout in Shadow’s direction, his voice still managing a minor echo, “The s-s-station is is-closed! Y-y-y-you can’t go in there!”

Practically rolling his eyes though not stopping his movement, Shadow merely said to the main rather bluntly:

“I’m a G.U.N. Agent. I have business to be here. You’d do best to call for medical treatment immediately while you’re still alive.”

With that, he ventured into the underground terminal and left the guard to his own devices. While he knew his handling of that situation wasn’t precisely heroic, he had honestly heard about the corruption and attitude of the Soleanna guardsmen - and if they were honestly still going to be so ignorant with him after whatever had just happened to them, frankly Shadow cared very little for them.

Still, the thought of what might have caused damage did fill Shadow’s mind. As he walked down a set of stairs and was staring down a hallway of white tiled floors, columns holding up the building, and a combination of concrete and metallic walls and ceilings alike - mostly with usually spotless white painting, he only saw more of it.

More black explosion marks of ash, and pieces of technology ranging from computers and their monitors to even weapons the guardsmen themselves had been holding, all of it was strewn throughout the station in a pathway of what appeared to be chaos and destruction. There were more guards as well, littered across the floor of the entire station alongside the remnants of contemporary technology, traschans, destroyed remnants of crates, and the various pieces of garbage that once resided within the latter. All of it now scattered across the once spotless white tiles. In some spots, the corners and even segments of walls still had alit flames from where the bursts had struck them - denoting this damage as recent.

Thankfully, from what Shadow could tell there were no pedestrians caught in this mess - only a small horde of injured guardsmen. He would have felt more sympathy if it had been civilians.

However, there was one injured figure that stood out from the rest. He rested beside a column just before the empty train tracks where the respective vehicles would travel to and from, clutching a bleeding arm while he took deep breaths, trying to recover. His presence explained to Shadow why some of the projectiles that impaled the walls and floor were shurikens, for it was a familiar purple chameleon:

“Espio?” Shadow asked, his eyes widening as he approached the lizard, kneeling down to his level once he was close enough for conversation. Looking up at Shadow, Espio returned the sentiment, though was too sore to stand up despite his best efforts. After hissing in pain, he gave up the attempt:

“S-Shadow” he said as he looked up at the hedgehog, “Long time, no see.”

“What happened here? Why are you here?” - Shadow was not one to waste time, and to his credit neither was Espio:

“I was here to help Sonic and Knuckles” Espio explained between breaths, “I managed to save Elise from Eggman, though she was recaptured not long afterwards. Here, I caught back up with Sonic, not long before two hostile figures arrived on the scene.”

“Hostile figures?”

Nodding, Espio did his best to elaborate on those who had attacked him, in between minor coughs of course:

“A lavender cat, and a white hedgehog” he explained, “The cat seems to be pyrokinetic, and the hedgehog seemed to possess some form of psychokinesis. I tried to hold them off so Sonic had time to chase after the train, but their combined power was too much for me. They’ve already proceeded on after Sonic.”

Curious about these mysterious figures, Shadow had but a few more firm questions pertaining to them before he planned on taking off on his objective:

“Do you think they’re working for Eggman?”

“No, if anything they are or are working a third party” Espio said as he shook his head, “I think, one of them mentioned something about a ‘Mephiles’ character, before they took off after Sonic….I’m not sure who that is, though.”

Shadow stood back up after he heard Espio say that last line. It was all he really needed to know. Having already a decent grasp on the situation, Shadow looked towards the train tracks and the tunnel that they tapered down, knowing exactly what it was that he had to do. Espio took silent note of this reaction, though didn’t address it. Perhaps he swiftly caught on that Shadow knew more about what was going on than he did. Before he even took another step though, he was sure to ask Espio but one final question:

“Are you going to be alright?”

Though it pained him, making him let out grunts and hisses alike, Espio still managed finally to stand himself up onto his feet - albeit he still was hunched over and clutching his burnt, bleeding left arm as he looked over Shadow before saying to him with a nod:

“I will need time to recover, but I should be able to take care of myself. Sonic will probably need your support, however.”

Nodding in agreement with that statement, Shadow wasted no further time and left Espio to find medical assistance while he himself raced down the metallic rails and wood panelling that served as the train tracks - skating now at full speed as he raced to confront both Eggmand and whatever beings seemed to be hunting down Sonic. If his hunch was correct, the same reason that brought him and Barry into meeting each other was likely the reason these two were so hostile.

_ Hopefully Sonic can take care of himself long enough for me to handle them. _

The tunnel that Shadow was skating down proved to be wide, dark and lengthy. For a human being, it would have been at least an hour of walking through the damp, blackened abyss to cover the distance the ultimate lifeform did, though for the hedgehog himself these kilometers of distance were covered in mere minutes. 

With as quick as Shadow was, about as fast as a speeding train itself in all honesty, the long tunnel of stone, brick, metal and mortar swept by him just as fast it would for any actual train worth travelling on.

The tunnel did not last very long however - though Shadow had been expecting a straight journey along the tracks until he found either Sonic or where the train was, instead all he found was a massive pile of rubble, dirt and debris - the ceiling of the tunnel completely caved in right before his eyes in what appeared to be an abyss of metal, wire, cables, wood and various forms of stone and rock. Needless to say, he was quite irritated at the sight, though looking around he found another tunnel along one of the walkways - it’s only defense being a door that was already burst clean open, with the yellow-black caution tape once enveloping it since torn into halves and strewn along the floor.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Shadow was quick to begin walking towards this opened pathway - though he was distracted and jumped into his battle stance when he overheard ruffling coming from beneath the rubble, culminating when a large chunk of it burst open like a pipe when pressure builds up high enough.However, from the cloud of dust came no enemies - only Knuckles and Tails, both of them being covered in the dust of the rubble they were beneath, and having some scrapes and bruises from some unseen altercation though otherwise seeming to be just fine. Knuckles too was ready to fight Shadow when all he could see was the Hedgehog’s silhouette, though once the two saw each other clearly they both let down their fists. Tails of course, was quick to exclaim:

“Shadow!” he said, “You did make it back to the present!”

Shadow only nodded in response to that, before getting immediately to the point:

“I’m assuming you had a confrontation with the cat and the other hedgehog too?”

Knuckles scoffed at the mention of their name before responding:

“Yeah, we met them alright.”

“We tried to hold them off so Sonic could focus on saving Elise” Tails further explained, “Some of Eggman’s robots got involved too, though I think it was the white hedgehog that made the ceiling come down onto us!”

“I’ve never seen someone pick stuff up with their mind like that” Knuckles commented, “I couldn’t tell if he was using a chaos emerald to do it or not, but either way I think they did have one on them.”

Shadow nodded as he processed this information, putting together in his mind what happened before his arrival. Once his mind was finished, he quickly asked the two one important question:

“What direction did they, and Sonic, run off too.”

“Sonic left down that way” Knuckles gestured his head towards the pile of caved in rubble, “O’course, that was before it caved in.”

“The other two headed off down that tunnel, towards the abandoned mines” Tails explained as he pointed towards the path Shadow was just about to go down.Shadow, looking that way, said to them without looking back:

“Thanks” - however, just as he began walking towards it he could hear the sound of Tails’ twin tails going off, signaling that the young fox was using them to fly in the air towards him. Shadow however was swift to turn around and tell him sternly, “It’s best if you stay back here and wait for Sonic to return.”

“What? No way-”

“Based on what I’ve heard, these two are easily capable of overpowering you” Shadow explained, “I’ll do best to handle them on my own. Besides, Espio might need help of his own in recovering from  _ his _ fight with them.”

Neither Tails nor Knuckles liked that, though while Knuckles silently nodded and left to presumably see about Espio, it was Tails who stayed in place and looked on in silence as Shadow skated away down the dark abyss of a hallway towards the mines. While in the end Tails opted to not follow Shadow, it was mentally and emotionally a difficult choice for him to make - he only made it in the end because he knew Shadow was correct about the two assassins being far too powerful for him to be on the field against them.

As such, with Tails and Knuckles both heading back and outside of the terminal, it was Shadow and Shadow alone who persevered ahead. 

Despite what he had been told about what he was heading into, it did not deter him whatsoever:

_ I’m curious to see who these two ‘assassins’ are. _

_ First Barry and now these two.  _

_ I wonder how many others Mephiles has to do his dirty work for him... _

When Shadow finally did manage to re-enter the outside after but a few moments of speeding through a dark, wooden pathway at full throttle, he was greeted not by the city but instead by a long abandoned mine - though what it had once been mining was not known to him. 

What greeted him when he bursted out of the darkness and into an area actually coated by the light of the sun was a long, rounded wooden tunnel supported primarily by wooden beams beneath it and the sprawling mountains of a wide open canyon beside it - the other side sporting various wooden pillars that made way for the rays of sunlight to peer their way through. Through those pillars and beams there could be seen a tall bridge that sported the train tracks Shadow previously found obstructed, held up high above the waters that flooded the bottom of the incredibly steep and magnificently large canyon that the entirety of the mine was built around.

Unfortunately, just as Shadow found himself exiting the tunnel and skating on grass and dirt for but a few moments before reaching a separate, entirely wooden platform that itself had a massive gap between itself and another - he found that the train he was looking for was indeed a good distance ahead of him, though in the distance he could hear the sound of its whistle as well as it driving along the tracks. It wasn’t far, though in this cluttered location it was difficult to actually see how far away it truly was.

What he wasn’t too late to encounter however was the horde of robots Eggman had deployed all across the canyon, with Shadow having to face two white-amored gunners and one red-armored ‘stinger’ for a few moments when they descended onto the ground right in front of him. Unphased by them, he made short work of them - the machines hardly had any time to fire at the ultimate lifeform before single punches and kicks completely destroyed them where they stood - Shadow using one of them coupled with his shoe’s hover system to get just enough air so that he could grind along the darkened ropes suspended above as support for the damaged bridge he had just been on.

_ Pathetic Robots… _

With how fast he was going, it wasn’t long before he reached another obstacle. The rope he was grinding on found itself cut into pieces and was swiftly destabilized when two bright blue laser streams sliced through it as if it were a slice of a freshly baked cake.

While in the air after having jumped to avoid a brutal fall, Shadow noticed that a barrage of at least eight or so missiles were simultaneously launched in his direction. Not yet seeing the source of these attacks, he curled into a ball and hurled himself violently at these missiles - destroying them each in a manner of seconds before finally landing himself onto the ground, this time on a large square platform made entirely of old, rusted metal that gave it a hue of worn out red and brown. He wasn’t able to tell what metallic resource was used to construct it, but either way he was too busy focusing on his attacker.

It was, of course, a robot. Though it was much larger and more durable than the weaker ones that he encountered before. It was about ten or perhaps eleven feet tall and bulky enough to boot. Painted mostly white that faded into blue, it’s feet and arms were topped with golden drills, and it had a single white circular eye in the center of it’s rounded head. While it sported joints in it’s legs, it’s arms lacked any articulation at all.

Despite the machine’s size however, he was not deterred. Infact, he snarled at the machine with irritation - not intimidated by it in the slightest.

The robot, though it moved it’s body with horrendously slow speed, had mighty weapons to make up for that lack of mobility. It immediately fired a full barrage at Shadow the moment it realized he was in front of it - two burning hot lazer beams along with launching at least eight missiles at once at him all from point blank range. Shadow however, was far too fast for the mechanical behemoth and slid under its body the moment before the missiles could have even hit him. Jumping into the air and looking down upon his foe, all it took was the launching of a single chaos spear at it to render it a series of burnt chunks of metal scattered along the ground.

_ Omega is right about these ‘consumer’ models, they are worthless. _

Without even landing, Shadow then jumped onto a tall brick pillar that was nearby, sprouting from the waters miles beneath. Letting himself skid down it only for a second, he leaped from it onto another, taller one, and used the latter to land on another abandoned and ruined cliffside structure. This time a concrete room of a forgotten purpose directly beside the train tracks, with grass slowly conquering the concrete and all of the walls appearing as though something had aggressively blasted through them. 

As to be expected however, upon landing inside of this abandoned mining building, Shadow was quickly surrounded by another grouping of hostile robots.

The group was not intimidating to Shadow in the slightest of course, being compromised of a single individual of the larger, drill-armed class, two red-armored ‘stingers’, three white-armored ‘gunners’, and at least seven white machines with a painted bronze trim that sported saucer-like heads, two hover engines underneath, and mounted machine guns in between their engines in a manner highly reminiscent of G.U.N.’s own beetle machines.

Despite the absolute barrage of missiles, lasers and rapid streams of bullets immediately flying towards him however, Shadow was not deterred by these _ toys _ at all. He leaped in the air to avoid the bullets and lazers, and with a sweeping kick destroyed at least four of the fake beeletes and one of the gunners by literally sending the missiles back towards them. Evading the rest of the missiles, the rest of the weaker robots went down within a matter of seconds, the ultimate lifeform merely having to violently ram himself into them with either punches, kicks or spinning into them while curled into a ball - each hit of course coming with insanely fast speed and perfect precision. Yet again, the bigger one hardly had tme to aim at Shadow properly before a chaos spear sealed it’s fate.

With that minor obstacle dealt with, Shadow persevered on his way, noticing behind the clearing smoke and metallic remains lied an open doorway leading to the area behind the building. Rushing down it, he found a metallic path that while rusted to appear a fine red color actually formed a spiral around the train tracks he was following, before sending him to a wooden platform at the end of a long series of conveyer belts.

Perched on this platform was a blue armored ‘gunner’ type robot, which had a lazer gun rather than missiles, though it was taken out within a matter of seconds - one dodging of the lazers followed by a well placed chaos spear directly through its head.

_ Even the Black Arms were more effective. _

With that having been done, Shadow looked out onto the conveyor belts that were connected to the platform he was on. They each had two lanes, motioning in opposing directions. Despite the mines being abandoned for quite possibly years, they still turned on albeit the lights along them would flicker and signal a flipping of their directions.

The ‘belts’ themselves formed a series of straight pathways progressively gaining in height as they went along, though not via being built at an angle, rather by having one built higher and being accessible from the lower ones via cargo lifts - none of which seemed to be in operation.

Observing this, Shadow traversed this section skating along the belts themselves - thanks to his shoes’ hover ability, the direction the belts motioned in did not matter so long as his shoes were active. With that in mind, Shadow approached the lifts by leaping into the air and jumping between the wooden beams supporting they higher levels, acrobatically leaping onto the belts themselves when he was high enough. It was the type of skill that few others could possibly pull off, and saved him a high amount of time.

Unfortunately, Shadow did have to repeat this process at least one other time before he was skating along a wooden platform without anything to push him back. There was greeted by a trio of two gunners and one yellow-armored Egg Buster - featuring twin missile launchers, though with more rapid and dangerous missiles than the red ‘stinger’ variants.

However, as before these machines had flown right into their doom as Shadow dispatched them with these - one kick to the abdomen sent the gunners crashing into crane lifts in the distance,while a chaos spear impaled and decimated the yellow buster.

It was not the last however, as when Shadow took notice of a damaged wooden platform to his left that would allow him to move to another damaged building, one of the busters charged directly at him, seemingly from nowhere. However, considering that he quite literally plowed directly through it just as quickly as it appeared it is safe to state that it posed no immediate threat to him.

With it destroyed, Shadow navigated with carefully timed leaps across a series of two cranes, each of them perpetually carrying a heavy cargo of dark blue metallic beams, large enough for him to walk on at the cost of his weight gradually pulling the crane’s delicate ropes down - necessitating leaping to the next. Only after this obstacle did he reach his destination, at least his immediate one, that being yet another damaged, practically wide open building.

_ This must have been some kind of terminal when it was active.  _

He deduced.

_ It’s impossible to know for certain though, nor am I sure how they ever got any work done here. _

Just as he stopped dwelling on what this location looked like however, he was greeted yet again by a small swarm of robots - and yet again he was about as amused by it, or lack thereof, as he had been with each previous machine. This time, it was at least seven gunners, two stingers, and ten ‘beetles’ that surrounded him, along with two of the large drill robots that remained in their flying mode; folding their legs and keeping their arms straightened to maintain a more compact appearance. 

It didn’t save them.

Not a single one of them.

Within mere seconds, yet again did Shadow make short worth of the doctor’s disposable metallic foot soldiers. Mighty punches, swift kicks, slides to evade missiles and bullets, jumps to evade lasers, and well timed chaos spears resulted in the robots exploding into various pieces of metal that fell to either the ground or to the ravine miles below.

As the smoke cleared and Shadow made sure that none of them remained active, the hedgehog scoffed:

_ Useless machines.  _

_ Honestly not even worth my time. _

Choosing to not waste any more time, Shadow was about to continue on his path when his attention was distracted by a sound coming from just a few feet away - from the direction of an open pathway leading to the area behind the building he was in. He could hear someone shout:

“IT’S NO USE!”

Before the sound of various robots being destroyed at once entered his ears as well, with some of their parts managing to roll all the way to Shadow’s own feet.

Deducing very quickly who generated the sounds, Shadow was tempted to take one step further, though the sound of the train’s whistle from a distance reminded him of his other goal - confronting Eggman himself. Seeing as how he didn’t hear Sonic’s voice at all, he decided to ignore the ‘assassin’ and jump directly on the train tracks; speeding along them in full pursuit of the train itself. 

He didn’t bother to get a good look at the assassin, nor see if the latter got a decent look at him. With how fast Shadow was going however, it was more than likely he would’ve been nothing more than a black blur.

_ As long as the robots keep them distracted, it’s not worth my time. _

What Shadow was greeted with as he passed through the lengthy curved, stone tunnel that he had heard the sounds of the train can’t be described as anything other than a beautiful, wide open vista.

Essentially, he was rushing down a long, narrow canyon; zooming through the occasional stone tunnel that rested between either side of the steep, mountainous walls. The plateau that housed the train tracks only took up roughly one half of the canyon itself, with the half being occupied by a steep ravine populated by rapid moving water and dangerously placed rock formations. All along the route of the train tracks were not only occasional tunnels and draw bridges, but also mining buildings that rested on the edges along the top of the canyon. Whether or not they were abandoned couldn’t be deduced.

Nor did Shadow spend much time thinking about them though, as with the train’s whistle closer to him than ever before only one thing was on his mind:

_ Lets. Get. Moving! _

Expecting to see Eggman’s train shortly, Shadow was quite surprised when he saw not only what he anticipated but also something that he didn’t:

Far in front of him was the train itself - a snake-like, streamlined, metallic vehicle made primarily of darkly painted metals and deep red tinted windows, speeding along the tracks as if there truly was no tomorrow, as well as featuring enough cabins behind it’s cockpit and front engine to carry hundreds of passengers - or in this case two passengers and a horde of armed machines. Behind the train was a familiar blue hedgehog, Sonic, speeding after it. However, the reason Sonic had not been able to catch up to it was because he was joined by a ‘purple’ wind: a cat. A cat with lavender colored fur - four plumes of it tied into a high ponytail, wearing a pair of pink heeled shoes and two puffs of white ‘fluff’ by the wrists and ankles, as well as a purple tailcoat with dark pink trims, a golden collar and what seemed to be white leggings. What made this feline dangerous however was the fact that fire seemed to burn within her soul like the fire in her golden eyes, which is to say she appeared to be literally attacking Sonic with the power to manipulate fire to her whim.

However, Sonic was fast - just as fast as she could fire a fireball or lunge at him while encasing her body in flame, he was swift enough on his feet to dodge it and then attempt to fire back at homing in on her in ball form. Though not only would she always land on her feet when knocked back, but she could rush to catch up to him and resume the fight - at least from what Shadow was able to see.

Shadow didn’t waste time thinking about who this was - he already knew. Or at least he knew what her purpose was. Seeing as how they both were in the way of his objective, he may as well lend his support to the one who needed it. 

Noticing how the two were cutting each other off at various intervals, with Sonic still repeatedly dodging scorching blasts of blames from the cat he was fighting with, Shadow timed his entry carefully.

He waited for a moment just after the cat had dashed at Sonic while encased in an aura of flames, with Sonic having dodged it. Just as the cat let down the flames surrounding her, she received an aggressive ramming from behind courtesy of Shadow - his elbow slamming into her back and sending her falling to the ground with a gasp and subsequent grunt, accompanied by a hiss.

Not having the time to stop, Shadow did not waste any time and instead kept his speed. Managing to maintain it as roughly equal to Sonic’s own, it wasn’t long before Sonic turned to him and with a bit of a cocky smile commented:

“Thanks Shadow, but I had that situation under control.”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, almost thought about rolling his eyes as well.

_ Didn’t look that way to me. _

Shadow simply had to ask at this point:

“So what exactly is going on here?”

“Heh, why don’t you go back and ask  _ her _ that?” Sonic remarked, “I’m just trying to save Elise! Said something about how destroying me will save the world, as if that makes any sense!”

“I see…” before Shadow could say anything more, he noticed from the corner of his eye that the cat was rapidly and aggressively approaching them from behind, having gotten up from Shadow’s blow to her. Sonic of course saw this too and before he could even say anything, Shadow said firmly to him: “Focus on saving Elise, I’ll handle this.”

Sonic for once didn’t say anything, only nodded and increased his speed to move ahead of Shadow, who maintained his in order to better prepare himself for the incoming fight.

Waiting for just the right moment, it was when the cat was just about to charge at him with ramming speed her flame aura active that Shadow launched his first attack - a chaos spear aimed directly at her face. However, the cat’s reflexes proved quick enough for her to dodge it with only seconds to spare, instead it exploded on the ground behind the two of them. Now on Shadow’s left, the cat proceeded to quickly retaliate by turning her aura into a stream of fire blasted right at him like a beam of rage. Shadow managed to evade it by swiftly shifting himself behind it, though had to evade yet another one that came for him from behind all but immediately after.

Once they were neck-and-neck with one another, the two were very quickly exchanging death glares; the cat in particular was quick to confront her opponent with a commanding tone:

“You’re not Mephiles...who are you?!”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, replying with an unamused and disinterested tone, “I can ask you the same question.”

Rather than responding with words, the cat instead gritted her teeth and hissed with fury as she lunged herself at the Hedgehog, only for Shadow to jump over her and end on the opposite sides - thus accomplishing very little beyond them switching places as they continued running ever forward. The cat, still infuriated with her adversary, fired a stream of fire from her left hand aimed directly at Shadow’s head - though he dodged it by ducking and from there entered his spinning ball state.

Briefly stuck behind her, it was a mere matter of moments before he rammed himself towards her. Though she had enough time to dodge as he came near, the stream of fire she launched at him itself was also evaded, and being in the air gave Shadow an opportunity to launch a chaos spear directly towards her chest. Seeing it and widening her eyes she had just enough time to encase herself with a shield of fire before it struck her. However, the explosion from it’s impact with the shield itself was still enough to send her falling to the ground covered in ash, and not only that but for once she landed on her back.

Shadow did not waste any time in standing by only to hear her groan and hiss while on the ground, instead he only stayed long enough to ensure she was seemingly incapacitated and promptly sped off to catch up with Sonic and the Train.

The cat though proved far from finished.

Getting back up and wiping blood from her mouth with an angry glare, she swiftly sped up after Shadow and just as swiftly caught up with him. For once she managed to catch him off guard as he was just barely able to turn around before she pounced on him with the claws of her hands retracted. Both of them had also of course tumbled onto the ground though, which forced the two to a grinding halt.

The cat landed on her feet and entered a proper battle position, practically about to yet again pounce onto her target. Shadow, though he had to get up first, entered his own battle stance as well - his fists curled up and legs apart in preparation for her next move. With both of them ready for more and glaring each other down silently, the cat chose this opportunity to speak in a blunt, clear voice:

“Blaze. I’m Blaze, just so you know the last person you’ll be seeing.”

“Shadow.” the hedgehog responded, undeterred by her threat, “Shadow the Hedgehog.”

It was but a few moments after that when they charged at each other but one final time. Blaze leaped into the air with intent of yet again pouncing on Shadow, while the ever focused ultimate life kept his eyes on Blaze as he swiftly approached her.

Ultimately it was with expert precision that Shadow leaped into the air mere moments before Blaze and her now literally fired up claws made impact with his body again, and with a swift sweeping roundhouse kick directly to her abdomen sent her flying off into the cliff to his right - accompanied by a loud crashing noise and the subsequent crumbling off rocks as a dust cloud briefly appeared from the small crevice her impact had created.

With Blaze now truly unable to so swiftly return to fight, Shadow offered only a single ‘hmph’ before yet again speeding along in the direction of Sonic and Eggman’s train, this time managing to go on his way uninterrupted.

With how fast Shadow’s shoes were able to carry him, it was only a small amount of seconds before he was able have Sonic within his sights, though a side effect of his speed was that he missed on the series of metallic debris scattered along the way, and only when he had just caught up to Sonic did both he and the blue hedgehog have to dodge an explosion of fire and debris when one of the train’s cabins suddenly exploded just before they could have passed by it.

After they dodged both the explosion and the ensuing debris, Sonic noticed Shadow running next to him again and with an elated tone he exclaimed:

“Guess you took care of that ferocious feline, eh Shadow?”

“Yes, I did” Shadow remarked, though he was quick to bring attention to what needed it most, “Now we have to deal with this train.”

“Heh, tell me something I don’t know!” Sonic remarked, “Every time you get close to it, Eggman starts detonating the cabins!”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, bluntly stating to the blue hedgehog “Then we need to move faster than the speed he detonates them, take out the wheels, and infiltrate the train.”

“You sure are good at saying these types of things like they’re the easiest things in the world.”

“Do you have any better suggestions?”

“Well, no, actually.”

“Then let’s just do mine and get this over with” Shadow said sternly, “We don’t have the time to keep chatting about it.”

Sonic had nothing to say that, his mouth remaining closed as he answered not with words but with a nodding of his head. The plan was not a guarantee of success, but it was certainly more effective than doing nothing.

The primary obstacle in their path was, as stated before, the fact that every single time the train detected their motion from behind it would detonate the cabin closest to them just before they could even hope to pass it up. Despite their speed, it appeared that Eggman’s machinery was capable of timing these explosions near perfectly; as though he had indeed fully anticipated the potential for them to attempt this very plan. This was a problem as not only would the explosion itself force them to run backwards away from it’s fire and smoke, but it would also send various pieces of metallic debris their way as well. That’s not to mention that the explosion being so close temporarily nulled their ability to hear the sound around them, forcing them to only hear high-pitched ringing for at least a few painful moments before their hearing properly returned.

Shadow chose to ignore the judgemental look that Sonic gave him. As this realization hit rather hard.

There had to be a way to somehow stop the train, or at least board it.

It was then that Shadow remembered something that in hindsight, he should have thought of much sooner. Despite being somewhat embarrassed about waiting so long to think of it, he still turned towards Sonic and said to him:

“Grab my hand, I’m going to chaos control both of us on the top of the train.”

“Heh” Sonic smirked, taking the time to remark: “You didn’t think of that first?”

Shadow almost growled when he heard that, though in the end decided to instead offer only a silent scowl before demanding:

“Just do it. Now.”

Though Sonic still smirked and chuckled just a bit, he still complied with Shadow’s command and extended out his hand. Grabbing hold of it with his right hand, it was with his left hand that Shadow held out the green chaos emerald and shouted aloud:

“Chaos Control!”

And just like that the two speeding rodents were sounded by flashing green lights and pulsating surges of energy, enveloping them within a matter of mere milliseconds. Within just as much of an instant, Shadow could feel his own thoughts turn into power as it was them which guided him and Sonic to their destination; the very location which Shadow chose, the roof of the train itself. Or at least one of it’s cabins.

There was hardly enough time for them to just stand idly however, for before long they heard from beneath them an ominous beeping sound.

Knowing precisely what was incoming, the two looked to each other and nodded before dashing off at their top speed mere moments before the cabin exploded. Successfully outrunning it, they proceeded to outrun a slew of more explosions as they went on to speed along the roof of the train; the wind rushing past their faces and quills, while the ferocious sound of metallic chunks exploding to bits behind them repeated within spans of mere seconds, spewing fire and debris every which way behind them. All the while the hedgehogs themselves remained stone faced, even Sonic, as both of them grasped well what it was they had to do and how serious it was.

There was no discussion, not but a single word was said.

Their actions spoke louder, about as loud as the explosions trailing behind them.

Thanks to their sheer speed, it didn’t take them very long at all to reach the front cabin of the train. As their feet clanged along it’s rounded black metallic roof, neither of them wasted any more time before spinning into their ball forms and ramming themselves onto what to them was just a cold hard floor. Sawing through the iron like blades through wood in a lumber mill, they soon found themselves bursting into the very cabin the doctor himself happened to be residing in. They landed expertly onto the cold, steel floor and gazed down the stainless white walls to see an ominous egg-shaped office chair; the doctor of course remained seated in that same chair, not even facing the two. 

Instead, he was too busy looking at the bright monitor screens laid before him. A series of graphs, text, live security footage in and around the train, and various other irrelevant information that such a high-tech vehicle would have.

Looking at all of these screens, it was without even turning around that the doctor uttered:

“Wouldn’t the door have been easier?”

As Eggman turned into his chair to casually face them, they remained ready with their fists up and clenched; their faces locked in angry, battle-ready glares.As though Eggman knew what they wanted already, an automated system could be heard forcing the train to slow down into a stop - it was felt when a jolt made its way through all three figures in the room to signal that the vehicle had completely stopped. Shadow turned his attention to Sonic, though without turning away from Eggman, as he said:

“Go search the remaining parts of the train for the duchess, I have my own business with Eggman.”

For once Sonic was able to keep his mouth shut, as he only replied to Shadow with a silent nod before dashing off behind him. Barely a second passed when the sound of the metallic door closing could be heard in the sake of Sonic so quickly taking his leave.

Though Eggman was clearly unhappy with yet again losing the princess, his smirk only vanished for a fraction of a second - merely twitching as though his confidence not yet being defeated. Still, with one foot crossed over the other he casually turned his focus to Shadow and in a disinterested tone befitting his demeanor asked:

“So, what do you want now?”

Shadow responded with another question, though he put himself and his voice into a more commanding tone:

“Who is Mephiles and why are you trying to capture him?”

Though the doctor did drop the smirk from his face and the ‘casual’ attitude he had to his demeanor, he replaced it with a more irritated frown as he stood up from his seat, waving a hand at Shadow with a huff as he turned towards the screens. Even his tone was one of annoyance as he answered:

“If you want to know, why don’t you go and ask him yourself?”, placing and cupping his hands behind his back the Doctor continued on in a return of his casual if not sarcastic demeanor from before, “But here’s a hint, it’s all linked to the Soleanna disaster ten years ago.”

Shadow became less commanding and more inquisitive at that moment, some of the pieces now beginning to come together as he replied:

“The Solaris project.”

“Indeed” Eggman remarked, twirling his mustache as he paced around for a bit, turning towards Shadow and approaching him as he placed his hands behind his back again, saying to the black hedgehog; “When you capture Mephiles, you must bring him to me. Then I’ll tell you the truth about Solaris.”

As Eggman casually took a seat back in his chair, resting his hands on the armests and silently awating the Hedgehog’s answer, Shadow himself honestly did contemplate the offer. He recalled the times he’d worked with Eggman before:

_ When I was first releases from G.U.N’s facility, it was him who released me, and who I aligned myself with first... _

_ Though, I wouldn’t call myself proud of what I had done back then… _

_ He also ended up on the side of us and G.U.N. though during the Black Arms invasion, albeit for the reason of wnot wanting anyone else to conquer the world. _

_ As much as I have my own qestions and doubts about G.U.N. at times, I doubt anything good would come from a being such as Mephiles being in Eggman’s custody. Even if I do decide to capture him instead of destroy him. _

Ultimately, Shadow’s response was a resounding:

“I’ll deal with Mephiles how I see it, Doctor.”

“Hmph” Eggman huffed, though it was in a manner both irritated by and having seemingly expecting that response, given by what he said next - “Suit yourself, Shadow. Just remember that G.U.N. aren’t the only ones to have access to my grandfather’s diary.”

That was admittedly not something Shadow had been anticipating to hear. However, it was true. It was after all how Eggman knew about Shadow in the first place.

As much as Shadow glared at Eggman, truth be told he had no idea what to do as his next move. Eggman, for his part, seemed to know this as the look on his face was just slightly shifted into the most confidently arrogant of smirks. Finding out the full truth behind his origin was one of Shadow’s top reasons for joining G.U.N. in the first place, so that mere fact alone gave Eggman significant leverage in this exchange. 

However, things were cut short when a loud explosive sound erupted from outside, a booming blast like that of a lazer discharging into the ground.

Looking up at the hole in the ceiling of the cabin and then back at Eggman, still maintaining his glare, Shadow ultimately decided to investigate the sound rather than the Doctor any further. There wasn’t much point to, he already knew what the Doctor was trying to do and going to say. He had more pressing matters to concern himself with.

Out in the open, it could be seen well that the train had stopped in a wide open gorge. Lush green grass with patches of dried brown dirt littered the flattened ground, with the train in between two steep canyon walls on either side east to west, a massive stone wall with accompanying concrete tunnel to it’s north, and of course the vast swaths of land previously travelled to it’s south. Littered around the gorge itself were plenty of wooden and steel crates alike as well as large rectangular containers placed on or near sloped conveyer belts or crane lifts leading to the plateaus above where another set of train tracks formed a bridge overhead of where Shadow was standing.

Scanning these surroundings quickly, it wasn’t long before he discovered the source of the commotion:

Sonic had managed to find Elise and carry her to the outside of the train, but was stopped in his tracks by the other remaining assassin; a white hedgehog with two prominent quills sticking out from the back of his head and a series of at least five styled to extend from his forehead almost like the leaves of a marijuana plant. On his wrists and ankles were golden metallic cuffs with creases of cyan lights horizontally down the middle, with similar marks on his gloves. His amber eyes wre set on Sonic with a piercing angry glare as Elise herself kept herself at a distance behind Sonic, there being nothing she could do as the white hedgehog shouted at the blue hero:

“This time there will be no more interruptions!” he pointed at Sonic as he angrily exclaimed, “The Iblis Trigger must die!”

There was hardly any time for anyone to react when the white hedgehog launched from his hand a green energy blast directly at Sonic. Though Sonic did manage to jump out of the way and evade the attack, the explosion caused by it hitting the ground was still enough to make Elise hold her arms up to protect herself and her eyes while also shrieking as she backed herself further away quickly. 

The sound of Elise’s fright unfortunately distracted Sonic though, as the moment he was standing up again the white Hedgehog held out a hand and trapped him within a psychic hold; a green aura surrounded Sonic and held him in place while all he could do was grunt and hiss, and all that Elise could do was hold her hands together to her chest and watch in anxious suspense. 

Watching this, Shadow was preparing to intervene. The only thing holding him back from doing so immediately was the fact that he knew attacking someone with such psionic powers would be foolish if they saw him coming; planning his entry was key. 

His initial plan of attack was to dispatch the assassin from a distance using a chaos spear while he was distracted with Sonic. That plan was however curtailed when a sudden blast of jet engine speed hurled it’s way just off Shadow’s right side, throwing the black hedgehog off blanace and stopping him from an immediate attack. As Shadow readjusted his balance and kept himself from being pushed away by such a fast gust of wind his first thought was:

_ What the hell was that? _

This small moment of confusion would until a familiar, sinisterly snarking voice called out to Elise from above:

“So how was your little walk, duchess?”

Before Elise could even respond, she was grabbed from behind by the cold hands of the robotic speedster, Metal Sonic, as he blasted at blazing speed from the direction of the train and swept her into the air. Where of course, Dr. Eggman was occupying the same aircraft he’d been using before. Elise could do little but scream out as this occurred in such quick succession, Sonic of course turning to see Eggman and the blue robot hedgehog swiftly flying away from the scene with Elise in tow.

However, trapped by this assassin Sonic was unable to do anything about it save for watch. 

Shadow had of course been watching as well, though knew that for practical purposes saving Sonic so he could save Elise while Shadow himself dealt with the greater threat would be for the best. As such, Shadow focused all of his attention on Sonic’s perdicament.

“Elise!” Sonic called out, though as if not seeing the duchess as important the white hedgehog grunted and emitted a psionic pulse which caused his trapped prey to jolt and converse with pain. As Sonic hissed and groaned in increased agony at this perdicament, the white hedgehog only went on:

“It’s time to end this!”

Thankfully for Sonic, this moment of dire circumstances when Shadow seized his chance to intervene.

Launching a chaos spear directly at the feet of the white hedgehog, Shadow was able to send the hostile assailant back by at least a foot as well as break his psychic hold over Sonic. By the time the white hedgehog focused back on his target, Shadow was now standing inbetween the two with his arms crossed and glaring directly at him. Sonic meanwhile was adjusting himself after what he had just been subjected to; as Sonic recovered, the white hedgehog couldn’t help but look at Shadow with a look and tone combining fury with confusion:

“Who?! Mephiles?!” he exclaimed, “Why are you getting in my way?!”

Shadow, maintaining his glare and dominant stance, was quick to correct this new foe of his :

“I’m Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.”

The white hedgehog, intimidated, glared angrily at Shadow as he realized combat was imminent. Shadow meanwhile took the time to turn his head to Sonic behind him; Sonic had just gotten up and onto his feet when he looked and saw the nod Shadow gave to him. Running off after Eggman and Metal Sonic just as Shadow turned back to his opponnent, he did not witness the rest of the confrontation.

The first thing that the white hedgeog attempted to do, guided by instinct, was to attempt chasing after Sonic. However, Shadow swiftly jumped in front of him and attempted to perform a kick directly to the hedgehog’s face. To his credit, the lighter hedgehog dodged it by bending himself as though he was breakdancing, before using his psionic powers on Shadow.

Trapped within an aura of green psychic energy, all Shadow could do is groan in agitated pain before he whisked directly into one of the large rectangular containers near the canyonside. Of course, due to Shadow’s physical strength he actually burst straight through the metal of the container itself and instead slammed directly into the rocky canyon walls. Fortunately, though he had the wind knocked out of himself he was more than capable of making a quick recovery as he stood up and cleared the dust out of his immediate vision.

_ So he really does possess psychokinesis… _

_ Was he born with it? Or was he created like me? _

_ I’ll have to look into this sometime later. _

Indeed he would, as for the time being he had a much more pressing concern. As once he regained sight of his opponnent he could see well that he was gathering up a series of projectiles to use. Barrels, tree branches, crates, small fruit and pieces of train debris were all gathered by the white hedgehog as he fixated his sight on Shadow. Both him and his weapons surrounded by his pyschic aura, he let out his signature battle cry as he prepared his attack:

“It’s no use!” he shouted, “TAKE THIS!”

Widening his eyes before making a determined dash away from the onslaught of weaponized objects, Shadow proved just fast enough to dodge nearly all of them. The metal barrels which bursted and splled oil and fuel all over the ground, the crates that shattered to pieces upon impact, the fruit such as apples which also became quite smashed upon impact, and everything else that this white furred assassin threw at him. Shadow ran a distant circle around the rodent and yet managed to perfectly evade a single hit from his projectiles.

He was also fast enough to outrun the white hedgehog’s focus as well. Seeing a window of time just after the last object shattered itself onto the ground, Shadow swiftly launched a silent chaos spear at his opponent from behind; Shadow was ultimately unsuccessful in his plan as the hedgehog seemingly sensed the incoming projectile and flew up into the air using his psychic aura to evade it.

Growling with increasing anger, the white hedgehog proceeded to fire an energy projecticle of his own at Shadow using the advantage he had of being so far above him. However, using his chaos emerald Shadow was able to utiliz chaos control to teleport away from it’s impact he immediately. This served to make his foe angrier, resulting in four more failed attempts at this same attack. After that fifth failure, the hedgehog even balled his hands into a fist and slammed them down in the air; his patience was fleeting.

_ He’s getting more irritated the more he fails to strike me. _

_ Pathetic. _

_ But also good for me, he’s going to be easier to deal with. _

Shadow was unable to fully anticipate what his enemy was going to do next however. Tried with his repeated failure to strike him with small scale attacks, the white hedgehog channeled all of the psionic energy that he could muster in order to craft and attack that in his mind was sure to end the battle shortly thereafter. Shadow processed what he was doing when he saw the doctor’s train fly into the air, being forced into a crunched state with it’s metallic body and inside making horrificly loud cracks and screeches.

What’s more, the bridge that had previously been overhead of it began undulating as the white hedgehog’s powers forcibly ripped it from it’s hinges an foundation along with all of the cranes and assorted mining machinery that was nearby to it. All of it joined with the doctor’s train in a symphony of nightmarishly loud, ear piercing sounds of various industrial materials crashing and collapsing onto one another until a vaguely ball shapped mass of them was formed; psychically lifted above the white hedgehog’s head as though he was lifting it. 

Having seen all of it, Shadow for once was awestruck, though it didn’t take long before he leaped into acton as soon enough this massive mass was hurled directly at him.

Any other being would have surely been done for in this situation, and they certainly wouldhaven’t have made the ambitious move to jump straight for it. Shadow however, was no reguar being. Moments before he made contact with the massive ‘ball’ he made sure to curl himself into ball form and surround himself with an aura of flashing chaos energy, making a grunt just as he made impact.

The energy burned through all that stood in his way, and the velociy of his ball form helped cut through it all like a knife through butter. He couldnt stop the ball’s actual movements however. The moment it hit the ground it created not only a loud crashing boom just like that of a building collapsing but it also kicked up about as much dust and dirt as such an event would have.

It was the latter which served to help Shadow put an end through the fight.

Plowing through the other side of the giant ball just as it made it’s impact, Shadow dissipated his chaos energy aura and hurled himself directly at the white hedgehog just as the dust from the crashing impact occurred. It served as excellent cover, for just as his enemy waved a cloud of it away from himself did Shadow come seemingly out of nowhere and land a sucker punch directly to his face.

Within an instant and with a sharp whine of pain, the white hedgehog fell from the sky and collapsed onto the ground below just as the dust from the mess he created began to clear. Shadow let himself fall as well, though he landed on his feet rather than his stomach; all without moving his eyes from his opponent at all. 

With the white hedgehog stumbling to his feet, it was mere moments before the two were exchanging both glares and repeated breathes at one anothe; both of the two combatants being exhausted after exerting themselves to such great extents.

Despite his tiredness though, the white hedgehog still raised his fist in anger before letting out a cry of frustation; foolishly, he made the decision to charge at Shadow.

Unimpressed, Shadow merely thought:

_ Pathetic. _

Before holding out the green chaos emerald and uttering:

“Chaos control!”

Just like that, the white hedgehog and everyone else around Shadow became slow enough so that from the black hedgehog’s perspective it was as though his foe was frozen in place. Taking advantage of this moment, Shadow casually walked up behind the white hedgehog and leaped into the air in order to deliver a sweeping roundhouse kick directly to the back of his enemy’s head. 

The time warping effects of chaos control wore off with the kick, causing the white hedgehog to collapse to the ground with both a thud of his body and an ‘oof’ from his mouth. Looking at Shadow from the ground now with anger seething in his eyes, he hissed at his foe:

“Y-Y-You!”

As the white hedgehog tried to stand up onto his feet again, though in his fury he was quick to turn towards his enemy once more, ready for more. Shadow was quick to hold out to his adversary his chaos emerald; saying to him:

“Don’t bother. With a chaos emerald’s power, I control time and space. You can’t break free.”

Still kneeling on the ground, the white hedgehog looked to his hands and to the ground as he spoke aloud to himself, figuring out for himself how he was going to handle this situation:

“I won’t give up!” he exclaimed, “It all depends on me! Can’t lose...not when I’m so close!”

That was when the white hedgehog revealed something that actually did manage to surprise Shadow, as he pulled out the blue chaos emerald and held it high into the air while emitting yet another battle cry to the heavens. Charging at Shadow with the blue emerald firmly in his hand, Shadow naturally returned the favor; this resulted in the two clashing, the cuffs of their hands ramming into one another as the emeralds began shining intensely as the two in unison spoke the ‘magic’ words:

“Chaos control!”

With those words being said, the two backed from each other just as a similar portal - to Shadow at least - opened up. A swirling blue and white vortex tearing straight through the fabric of space ad time, just like what he and Sonic had created to escape the hellish future they had been trapped in before. Though impossible to see where it actually led, Shadow assumed it’s destination based on the perod of time he had been thinking of; the saying was after all that the emeralds turned ‘thoughts into power’. Still, Shadow couldn’t help but be bewildered at how this newcomer seemed so capable with a chaos emerald.

_ He’s more peculiar than I thought… _

“You, you induced chaos control.” Shadow commented, showing both his state of being moderately impressed for once as well as his confusion about the turn of events.

“I won’t let anyone get in my way!” he replied, “I’ll change the past and save the world!”

Just as Shadow shook his head in response at the naivety of what he had just said, the two were joined on the field by a third, feminine voice approaching them quickly:

“Silver!”

It was Blaze, calling out to the white hedgehog just as she stopped herself by breaking. Assuming a battle ready stance as she stared down Shadow, it was evident that while still showing signs of their previous battle she had infact recovered from the ordeal. It also told Shadow the name of his adversary, Silver. Presmably Silver the Hedgehog.

“Silver, are you alright?” Blaze asked, not breaking her eye contact with Shadow for a second.

“Yes” Silver nodded, resuming his own battle stance as well, “I’m fine. Now that he’s dealing with both of us, he doesn’t stand a chance!”

Shadow chuckled a bit as he continued shaking his head. He admired their bravery, though. Still, he looked towards the portal before back at them, stating to them bluntly:

“Mephiles isn’t trying to help you two create a better future. He’s the one who ruined it in the first place.”

Both Blaze and Silver let down their battle stances and looked at Shadow attentively when he uttered those words, even looking to each other in silence before looking back at Shadow. Still, as to be expected such a pill wasn’t swallowed immediately as Silver’s immediate response was a confused:

“What? What are you talking about?

Still, it was clear that a two-on-fight wasn’t so assured, allowing Shadow to continue on in response, shaking his head more as he calmly approached the two:

“To discover what actually happened” he said, “It appears we must discover what took place ten years ago. Follow me if you want the truth.”

Without any further hesitation, Shadow jumped into the portal and let the cold yet invigorating sensation of travelling through time and space flow across his body like an autumn breeze. Though Shadow had left before they did, ultimately both Blaze and Silver did jump in after the black hedgehog after what clearly wasn’t a very long - if any - dicussion at all. Hopefully, they would be convinced by whatever the trio would soon discover locked away in the past.

With the bright flash of a blinding light and the act of travelling through the space time continuum for what was an impossible to truly percieve amount of time. When their short journey was finished the trio found themsleves greeted with the sound of their feet clanging against an entirely metallic floor. Looking around, they could see that they were in an entirely metallic hall. The walls, ceiling and floor were all entirely compromised of pristine, stainless floors of polished metals. The halls were well lit enough for them to see clearly, though besides repeated metallic doors and winding corridors there proved to not be much to see. The only clue as to where they were was that they could hear from a distance the echos and majestic songs of sea creatures; specifically the likes of whales and dolphins. Repeating through the halls, these eloquent songs easily presented to the three that wherever they were it was likely underwater.

However, all tree of them had little to no idea of where this location was. Of them, it was Blaze who was the first to actually say as such:

“What is this place?” she asked, “Are we still even in Soleanna?”

“Yes” Shadow answered, “We should be in the Soleanna underwater labs beneath the original palace complex, in the year 1996.”

“1996” Silver commented, looking around the place in amazement, even gazing at his reflection in the floor as if it was the most amazing thing in the world for his eyes to witness “The floors here are so clean, and those sounds are so beautiful.”

“We’re underwater” Shadow explained, “Those sounds are from pods of whales in the ocean outside of the base.”

“Whales?” Silver asked,”What are, whales?”

“In our time, we don’t really have what you’d call an ‘ocean” Blaze was swift to explain, “Unless oceans of lava count. We only know of the actual sea from reading about it.”

“Yes” Shadow remarked, nodding, “I saw what your future looks like. I’m hoping to prevent it from happening, as are the two of you.”

“Then why did you let the Iblis trigger get away?” Silver asked, turning to Shadow in a confrontational manner, “He’s the one responsible for causing the disaster that destroys the world!”

“I told you” Shadow stated, “Mephiles was lying to you. I can not tell you why he wanted you to kill Sonic specifically, but I can tell you that it had something to do with however he caused the very future you are trying to prevent.”

“I don’t get it!” Silver replied, “Why would Mephilies lie to us like that?”

Blaze, ignoring Silver’s question and looking directly to Shadow, asked a somewhat more sensible question:

“What exactly are we supposed to be looking for here?”

Shadow though, didn’t really know how to answer that question. Having never been here nor in this period of time before, he was unsure of what exactly was going on here. He did hwoever, scan his eyes around the hall until he located a door that seemed to be ajar; blocked from closing by what appeared to be a dropped plastic box. The sound of the door repeatedly hitting it as it tried to close was heard clearly in Shadow’s ears and is what drew to him to the door, with Blaze and Silver both following after him.

Upon reaching the door, Shadow was careful to first touch it with his hand and shove one of it’s two halves into the wall it came out of, followed by kicking the box into the room and doing the same to the other. The force of his push actually managed to break the door’s ability to close properly, though that wasn’t his concern. As he promptly walked into the dimly lit room the other two impromptu companions of his followed.

The room they had entered was an office of sorts, judging by it being spacious though contained. It only contained a series of shelves housing numerous books,a rounded section of couches upon which to sit and read said books, and a desk containing a desktop computer sitting ontop of it and an entire wall of filing cabinents behind it. The room itself was styled in a very stainless and pristine look, as if it was a setting in a science fiction film; a very idealized futuristic style, made for the place to seem more high tech than it truly was. If the room’s lights were turned on it certainly would have looked far more white; though it was with them turned off that the large glass wall showcasing the ocean cast over it a veil of deep blue instead.

Silver and Blaze were mesermized by the view of it. The vast abyss of the deep blue sea, with the light of the surface glistening calmly from above. The colorful vibrance of the coral reefs that were home to all walks of ocean life be they various schools if diverse fish, to crabs and lobsters tredding along the sea floor, to roaming sharks and slithering eels. The sea turtles silently swimming by the scene ever slowly, minding their own business. The dolphins playing about, every so often just grazing the window itself as if to say hello to those inside. The pods of massive humpback whales singing their beautiful mesmerizing songs far off in the distance.

To tell the truth, even Shadow found himself a bit awestruck by the sene. Though he had to break from soaking in the beauty to see if this room had any information about what was going on in this place. Turning to the computer, that was the first thing he thought to look into. Blaze followed him, though Silver was too hypnotized by the beauty of the ocean to do so.

Shadow ignored him though. 

Leaning over the desk, Shadow flickered the mouse until the computer’s screen went from black to being visible - though progressing beyond that proved difficult as to regain access to the actual computer her would need the password. 

_ Damnit. _

Frustrated, Shadow couldn’t help but pound a fist to the desk - creating a hole in it in the process of doing so.

“Silas Stone” he heard Blaze’s voice say, looking up to see that she was reading from a series of files that had been left on the desk.

“Hm?”

“That appears to be the name of the scientist who works in this office” Blaze explained, “Silas Stone. Does that name sound familiar to you?”

Shadow thought about it for a minute, though despite his own lack of knowledge about his past that was not a name that even felt like it meant anything to him in particular. As such he shook his head and said:

“No, it doesn’t.” he then directed his attention to the files Blaze was holding in her hands, “But what do the rest of thosre files say?”

Blaze then proceeded to silenty read through the files. At first her reactions to them seemed to give the imperssion that what they said were standard scientific jargon. However, within a matter of a few short moments her face appeared more intrigued and also more alarmed as she continued reading through the pages. By that point even Shadow was concerned, and Silver was finally walking over to the two as well. Blaze read through at least seven pages of information before looking up at Shadow and Silver - the former asking her:

“Well?”

“It appears Dr. Stone here is one of the head researchers, second only to the Duke himself.” she explained, “The project itself seems to be an effort to create a new, eternal energy source for the country if not the world; using the dark energy from the scepter of sarkness and the flames of disaster as a ‘controlled’ energy source.”

“What?”!” Silver exclaimed, expressing fright as well as confusion, “No way! Why would they need to do such a thing?”

“Science isn’t known for knowing when to quit, Silver” Blaze was quick to explain, “Besides the desire for an energy source that lasts forever, there isn’t any reason given. Not here, anyway.”

“Does it say anything about Solaris in particular?” Shadow questioned, “Or Mephiles?”

“It doesnt mention Mephiles by name” Blaze replied, “But it doesn mention Solaris as the country’s patron deity and the namesake of the project. There’s also this.”

She then handed Shadow a paper that had clipped to it three images; photographs. These photographs were mostly black and white, though gave Shadow an ominous feeling down to the pit of his stomach. One of them was seemingly from an aicnet temple, judging by the appearance of ancient echnidna carvings in the shot. In the center ofi t was a crude drawing of 52 circles surrounded by countless echidna skulls, all of them engulfed in the flames emitted by what appeared to be a massive sunbird situated above them all. The second was of another engraving, an ancient echidna mosiac mural presumably in one of their ancient cities or temples - though this one depicting what appeared to be two large houmanoid demonic beings fighting while in the middle of them seemed to be a bright circle, a portal perhaps. One of the beings had hair, horns and four eyes while the other was bald and sported only two. The third and final image was the least nightmare inducing though the most curious, sporting only a closeup of a particular set of echidna hieroglyphics. Being what they were, they did not say anything clear, merely being a series of shapes related to the echidna’s civilization and the surrounding area, though Shadow could tell they spelled something out. 

_ Perhaps Rouge will know what this says. _

Shadow then looked on the paper they were clipped to. Even though he figured it would mostly be jargon related to the energy project, he still read it attentively:

  
  
  
  


_ SOLARIS PROJECT REPORT #667 _

_ DATE 1995/04/21 _

_ PERSONNEL ID: DCCP26101980 DOCTOR SILAS S. _

_ Excavations at the Regal Ruin archaeology site in the Bialyan Desert have been completed; not much of note was found. The ruins were still flooded due to Bialya’s 74 year old R’as Dam, hindering research in the area. Not being allowed deeper into Bialya’s ruins also provided an obstacle to finding anything substantial, though three peculiar pieces of ancient Echidna artwork and heiroglyphics were found and the photographs of them processed - attached to this file. I do not know precisely what they say, though one of them bares a striking resemblance to Solaris. Another appears to prophecize or archive some sort of battle between two, what I presume, deities that the Echidnas perhaps had worshipped. Though they are perhaps particularly ancient gods, as they do not resemble any of the Echidna’s traiditional gods and goddesses. Copies of these - especially the third one solely containing heiroglyphics, I have sent to Professor Helena Sandsmark in Grand Metropolis. I’m hoping to hear back from her regarding the translations of the latter soon, and perhaps insight as to the meaning behind the other ones. I determined these findings peculiar due to the relation they appeared to have with Soliars; whether or not they contain any secrets pertaining to the ancient Echidna’s methods of utilizing chaos energy as a fuel source is yet to be determined though I do believe such knowledge is within grasp.  _

_ Unfortunately, the Bialyan Government has refused to renew our license to excavate in the area, leaving us with only 4 more days to wrap up our research and then return to Soleanna. It’s possible political tension is brewing between them and Soleanna. I wouldn’t know. _

_ In regards to progress on the project, isolation of the flames has been achieved though the strange energy force emitting from the scepter of darkness has still been resistant to extraction. Most machinery used in such endeavors seem to malfunction on contact, implying whatever is powering the scepter has powerful electro-magnetic capabilities. I worry it may shut off power to the entire complex. Am still looking into a way to extract and isolate the dark energy, which is not easy with how headstrong Duke Arturo is about getting this done soon. He is convinced that this energy project will save Soleanna’s ongoing crisis. _

_ That is all relevent information for now, will make another report should things change. _

  
  
  
  


Reaching the end of the report, Shadow placed it down on the desk where it had first been laying. He took the three photographs for himself though, still figuring that perhaps Rouge would later be able to decipher the heiroglyphics. For the time being though he turned to Silver and Blaze to summarize what he had learned:

“It appears that some sort of economic or energy crisis spurred the Duke of Soleanna into starting this ‘Solaris Project’ in the first place. Based on these notes, it seems we’re not long after they managed to isolate Mephiles from the scepter of darkness; for the first time.”

“Okay” Silver interjected, “But what about the accident? What happened here, or is going to happen here, that started all of this in the first place?”

As if on cue, that precise moment was when it happened.

From outside the three could all hear the sound of a loud, bellowing boom. The unmistakable sound of a loud explosion echoed through the halls of the base, bringing a rumbling temor in it’s wake. Looking to each other and then to the door, the trio nodded before bolting in it’s direction. Darting Running into it they soon learned they were on an upper level of the facility, as they were looking down on the lab from the view of a now shattered window into it. Jumping down onto the floor below, they saw that it was a rounded, circular room that was enclosed save for two entrance doors and entirely devoid of windows - the only lights had been the monitors of the various computers lying about the room. All of which were now destroyed and subsequently offline. Just like the rest of the room, they were covered with resiude of the explosion’s flames. Speaking of which, they could see various humanoid bodies lying lifeless on the floor; the scientists who had been working in the room. With thick suits and helemts on it was impossible to know their identities, though one of them appeared to have been shielding something, as his body was curled up against something in a protective manner.

Blaze, Shadow and Silver went to attend to these injured people only until something else caught their attention. In the center of the room, where remains of two now shattered glass tubes rested. An ominous hiss churned from the shredded glass as a pool of what looked like black tar bubbled and poured from the destroyed machine and onto the floor as a roaring ball of flame hovered above it. Looking at these things with functioning eyes, it did not take long for the three to discern what these things were. Blaze and Silver even exclaimed in unison:

“Iblis!”

“And that black mass” Shadow remarked, “Is Mephiles’ original form.”

Iblis and Mephiles seemed to ignore the three however. Iblis, in the form of a levitating mass of crackling and blistering hot flames, began motioning his way rapidly towards one of the entrance doors with Mephiles slithering his way just as quickly towards the other one. As all they seemed to do in regards to communication at this point was growl and hiss, it was impossible to know what either of their intentions were. Such things were not a concern of the trio though.

“They’re escaping!” Silver shouted, with Shadow quick to respond:

“You two go after Iblis” he said, “I’ll take care of Mephiles!”

Silver and Blaze both only nodded once before charging swiftly after Iblis, determined to stop the beast responsible for their hellish future. Shadow was going to do much the same in regards to Mephiles, though just before he took a step he was stopped by a frail and winded voice:

“Wait….”

Turning to the source of this voice, he saw that this voice came from a man he recognized from photographs as Duke Arturo of Soleanna. A fair skinned, middle aged, grey-haired man with deep blue eyes and a fully formed beard across his face. With him being dressed in a thick, heavy lab coat, Shadow sould see that he had he was present and had been shielding a five year old Elise when the explosion occurred. The latter being evident by her being unconscious beside her father. The Duke meanwhile, though shaking and injured by what had happened, still had enough strength to hand Shadow the scepter of darkness as he weakly said:

“Seal it with this…”

Shadow nodded as he took into his hands the scepter, and left the Duke to tend to his daughter while he himself chased fully after Mephiles.

Chasing Mephiles thankfully did not prove to be a particularly lengthy endeavor, in spite of the speed at which Mephiles’ dark cloud form slithered across his surroundings. With how long the undulating being was, Shadow was easily able to track him down each winding hall and corridor by his tail end - his personal speed proving to be very effective at keeping pace with him. This journey down various corners, halls with either nothing but lab doors or at least one side a view of the ocean was tedious though necessary. Ultimately though, as Shadow anticipated it was not quite as easy as merely catching up to Mephiles and using the scepter.

Just as Mephiles had reached an elevator lift to the surface, Shadow made his move and attempted to leap to position himself in front of the black mass. However, Mephiles growled and turned various spots of his cloud-like ‘body’ into whipping tendrils that swiped at Shadow. Maneuvering both in the air and on the ground each attempt Mephiles made to grab him or worse, Shadow retaliated with a chaos spear right at what from his perspective was Mephiles’ ‘head’.

Within seconds, Mephiles’ form splattered across the floor as though a massive bubble of ash black tar had just popped. Shadow was unscathed, though with Mephiles quickly regaining his form and growling of extreme anger he knew well that he had no time to waste.

Holding out the scepter into the air with his emerald in hand just as Mephiles regained his form and lunged at him, Shadow called out:

“Chaos control!”

And like that, Mephiles was frozen in place.

However, the sensation of being stopped in his tracks by Chaos Control was enough for Mephiles’ sinister voice to emerge. As one would expect, his tone was not pleased at all:

“You will regret this” he threatened, “You have no idea what you are meddling with.”

The scepter now glowing a bright white as it levitated itself into the air, with the light increasing with intensity once it was positioned high above Mephiles, who spoke with angered bewilderment:

“Who, who are you?”

Shadow gave him the answer he wanted:

“I’m Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.”

The scepter then began doing it’s job, pulling the black and purple shadowy mas that was Mephiles back into it. His form turning into spiraling streams as he was pulled in yet as he continued speaking to Shadow his voice remained calm; as though this wasn’t causing him any real pain at all.

“Shadow” he said, “Your face, your form, I will remember. Your death, certain. When our paths cross again, I shall kill you myself!”

Within a few moments after that final word of his, the scepter had finished sucking his form completely into itself; shining brightly one final time before falling to the ground, the scepter show radiated the same black and purple aura it had prior to when the demonic being was released from it in what was currently the future. Letting his arms down and putting away the chaos emerald, Shadow approached the scepter and kneeled down to pick it up.

Silently inspecting it, Shadow couldn’t help but leer his eyes inquisitively at it knowing full well what now rested inside.

_ What does this all mean? _

_ What exactly is Mephiles? _

_ Why does it relate to the Ancient Echidnas? And How? _

_ What exactly was going on down here? _

_ Just what kind of being am I dealing with here? _

Knowing he wouldn’t get any answers just standing in the middle of this room, Shadow turned his direction towards the elevator lift Mephiles had been heading towards. Seeing as how all of his business was done here all he had left to do was head to the surface and wait for Silver and Blaze to join him.

* * *

Though it took a large and quite tedious amount of time, Silver with Blaze at his side eventually was able to catch up with the fast moving vortex of blistering flames. Rather than a room with an elevator lift however, the pair caught Iblis in a room that ended with a dead end - a metallic wall with a flat marble table before it. 

Rather than question why Iblis was cornered so easily, instead they knew to get strasight to work. Blaze stood back as Silver managed to stop Iblis in his tracks with a psychic grab, though the fire demon was not so easily held in place. He growled with intense rage as well as hatred. Though he remained viligant and kept his ground, the strength it took both his body and mind to hold the flames in placed caused Silver to let out grunts and hisses as though he was performing the hardest of all exercises as a mere beginner; which, in a mental sense, he essentially was.

Blaze stood at the ready, emitting flames of her own as her hands in preparation for if Iblis broke free from Silver’s hold.

“Silver!” Blaze called out, “Do you know what to do now?”

“I don’t know” Silver admitted, “But we have to find some kind of way to take him out!”

Silver then noticed that Blaze’s eyes were fixated on something other than him, and turning to see what she was looking at he saw a sight which absolutely flabbergasted him. It was Duke Arturo, cradling his five-year old daughter Elise unconscious in his arms. The man was standing beside the two anthro beings in front of the flames; Elise remained hin his arms, alive though completely unaware of the scene happening around her. Seeing this man and his daughter was enough of a shocking scene to ellicit shouts from Silver:

“Hey! What are you doing?! Get you and your daughter out of here!”

Unyielding and now slowly approaching the flame, still carrying his daughter, the Duke responded with a determined, if not bull headed, tone while fully keeping his eyes fixated on the flames:

“I have my duty” he spoke, “This living flame has been entrusted to the royal family, the flames of disaster will awaken if nothing is done! That, must not happen.”

Silver and Blaze both watched as the man slowly made his way towards the marble table - placing his daughter gently down onto it. Brushing her short auburn red hair softly, he then motioned for something that he had been carrying in the back pocket of his soot covered lab coat. Judging by his motions, it was clear that he was sustaining a degree of injuries or from some health condition that perhaps was lung or heart related. 

Regardless of his increasing weakness, the man still managed to pull out the white chaos emerald. There was little to no time wasted with fanfare as he held it out and sent it to levitate up in the air. It was only once it stopped rising that he spoke with his eyes focused completely on it and the flames of Iblis:

“Eternal Sun!” he exclaimed, “The living flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with a royal soul!”

Silver and Blaze watched in solemn awe as the flames of Iblis began to seemingly calm down, looking down to see that instead the being of fire and destruction had been absorbed into the chaos emerald. Silver released his psychic grip at that point, looking to Blaze briefly before a sound came from the emerald. Looking to it, they witnessed a red beam of light streaming directly to Elise’s heart. The young girl only moved around but a bit, remaining asleep through the entire ordeal, which all in the scene would agree was certainly for the best.

_ No way! _

Silver thought, in absolute amazement as well as horrified confusion.

_ Iblis...Iblis is being sealed inside of that girl?! _

Indeed he was right. Not only was the color of the beam a dead give away, but once it had finished and the emerald fell to the ground, the first think that the Duke did was slowly make his away over to his daughter. Kneeling before her as his strength began to finally fade for good, he brushed her hair as a soft smile found it’s way onto his face and a single tear fell from his face. 

Though he knew he was in his aching moments, he still found enough strength and willpower to scoop her into his arms one final time, turning to Silver and Blaze and approaching them just as he yet again collapsed to his knees. They approached him, their brows curled into a state of concern as he said to them both:

“I’m sorry, but, can you take her to a safe place?”

Silver nodded as he quietly took Elise into his arms, him and Blaze watching as the Duke with another soft smile noticed that one of Elise’s arms was hanging in the air. He lovingly picked it up and placed it on her chest, before brushing her hair with his hand again. Knowing well that his time was coming, he said what would be the last words he ever said to her:

“That’s a good girl, Elise. Remember, be brave. Don’t cry, no matter what happens. Otherwise your tears will call forth the flames inside you. Become a strong duchess, who doesn’t cry no matter what happens. And...live...happily.”

The Duke’s life faded not long after his final word. His eyes closed slowly just as he collapsed onto the ground, the muscles in his body relaxing once he had hit the ground as if he was entering a deep sleep - though it was the kind without breathing. Silver and Blaze both were at a loss for words at what they had just witnessed, both of them unsure if anything would even be an appropriate thing to say at all. Ultimately, it was Blaze who turned to Silver and softly said:

“We should go, Silver.”

Nervously, the white hedgehog nodded with only a slight stutter in his voice:

“Y-Yeah…”

* * *

  
  


Shadow had been waiting outside of the original Soleanna palace for Silver and Blaze for what felt like some time. Though in the present the original palace remained in ruin, during this time period when it was in use, it was far more an impressive sight to behold. Standing in the middle of a courtyard, he had to admire how massive and practically imperial the palace was, situated in the middle of a lush valley with steep canyon walls on either side while a deep and pristine bay sat at the bottom. During this time period, all of the stone and marbel construction work was much more polished and clean, and all of the bridges scattered throughout the assortment of towers, spires and actual castle structures were in useable condition. The only vegitation growing were from well maintained and controlled gardens, such as the one in the courtyard he was standing in.

The stone path was clearly visible, the shrubberys and grass were an ever vibrant shade of green that glistened in the light of the sun, and the trees around him housed singing birds and small scurrying rodents alike.

There was great peace all around him, though as he gazed upon it he knew full well that none of this beauty was going to last. Inevitably this place would soon be abandoned and replaced, left to it’s own devices as it was left to the whim of time. Still, as the small birds chirped around him and large eagles soared through the air and perched on some of the towers and spires, even he decided to at least breath in the fresh air. After all that he had been through, it was refreshing to take it in.

“So, did you do it?”

When he heard Silver’s voice behind him, he turned to see him and Blaze approaching him. Silver of course carrying the still unconscious Elise in his arms. Though Shadow was curious, it was something his mind easily figured out for itself as he answered:

“Yes. And you?”

Shadow noticed Silver take a bit of a breath before he responded, though there was no lie detected in what the hedgehog said:

“Yes. The ‘flames’ are properly sealed. It’s done.”

Shadow then observed as Silver walked towards a nearby oak tree, and gently placed Elise down at the base of it’s trunk. The girl mumurred and moved around to herself just a bit, though remained completely asleep. Shadow took the oppurtunity to approach the two as well, kneeling down beside them and gently placing the scepter of darkness at the young girl’s side. 

This was a move that surprised both Silver and Blaze, with Blaze addressing it:

“You’re leaving it here?”

“But what about Mephiles?” Silver added, at which point Shadow calmly explained himself to the two:

“Messing with the past is dangerous. I can already see that if it weren’t for our actions here, the end of the world would have likely come even sooner.”

Though Shadow could tell they both had misgivings about his decision, both Shadow and Blaze nodded in agreement with what he had said. Seeing as how there was not much else for the three of them to do here anymore, Shadow turned to Silver and held out the green chaos emerald with one of his hands.

Silver complied and held out the blue one, the two of them both holding their emeralds out to the sky and shouting in unison “Chaos Control!”, influencin another time portal to open up before them. This one, set to return them to the present time they had previously left. Shadow wasted no time in jumping into the portal just as he did the previous one, knowing that both Blaze and Silver would follow after him. Though also knowing that they would be separated upon reaching their respective destinations.

Seeing as how when he landed in present day Soleanna’s New City district that neither of the other two were present, Shadow could tell his assumption was right.

The first thing Shadow did upon re-entering the New City was survey his surroundings. From the get-go he could tell that it was a different time of day to when he had left, seeing as how now the sun was just about vanished beneath the horizon giving way to a state of twilight as it remained a fading light in a sky of black and blue. He assumed that he would be able to see the twinkling stars above if it were not for the now activated lights of the city streets and buildings. At the very least he now had the luxury of feeling that cool night time breeze that always felt good on his skin and fur.

He would have liked to enjoy it’s sensation more if he didn’t have such serious work to do.

_ Now, to settle things with Mephiles here. _

Shadow wasn’t even able to take one step forward however, before he was greeted by a fast yet familiar red blur rushing towards him and stopping just before hitting him. Stil, having the Flash rush towards you was still something to make one jump back a bit. Barry wasn’t one to waste any time in getting to point, and getting to it fast:

“Shadow! There you are!” he said, a look of relief on his face. Shadow looked to him as well, taking note of what he said:

“Barry? What’s going on? Did you get healed of your condition?”

“Oh yeah” Barry smirked, giving Shadowa thumbs up with one of his hands, “One hundred percent”, but then his voice became a fair bit more serious, “But something happened when we reaced the Angel Island.”

Noting the tone shift in Barry’s voice, Shadow listened carefully and asked only one question:

“What happened?”

“We were ambushed by the Furies. I didn’t see them in the previous timeline, but they were some of Darkseid’s top warriors. They ambushed us just as we got to the Master Emerald. We wouldn’t have been able to fend them off if it weren’t for Chaos showing up…”

“Chaos got involved?!”

“Yeah, but he was helping us this time” Barry was quick to alleviate Shadow’s concern, or at least try to. Shadow was now concerned enough to grab Barry by the collar of his suit and practically shout:

“Barry, tell me what happened!”

“For the most part we all made it out fine, but Rouge is in the infirmary on the ship!”

Shadow let go of Barry, though the look of both surprise and intense anger didn’t leave his face, seething with it enough that his eyes even twitched. He wasn’t angry at Barry, not at Rouge. He wasn’t sure who he should be angry at for this, but he knew well who it shouldn’t be.

_ Whoever’s responsible for this, Mephiles or otherwise…. _

_ I’m making them pay. _


	11. The Key

Shadow had made his way to return to the Kalinske about as soon as he had heard of Rouge’s injury, let alone the rest of what happened at Angel Island. He had the fury and determination of a tank storming it’s way through the streets of a war torn city; there was no stopping him whatsoever. With Barry filling him in on the rest of what had happened along the way, his rush towards the ship only grew with both fury and speed.

_I should have been there_

Shadow thought, no he _knew_ that if he had been there the battle would not have been so dire. Chaos would perhaps not have had to awaken to intervene, Mighty would not have fallen, and Rouge would not be injured. 

_I should have known better_

_I should have protected them_

Even though in his mind he knew it best to not blame himself, there was something in his heart that prevented him from doing so. That also swore that he would never let this happen again.

His attitude didn’t change the slightest when he was again onboard the ship, either. He all but shoved other personnel aside as he stormed his way towards the medical bay with as headstrong a face as had ever been seen on him before. There was no soldier, doctor or nurse who possibly could have stood in Shadow’s way, not even Barry or Wally could have feasibly stopped him; his self-given mission was far too much important. 

All the latter two could do was follow after him. For Barry it wasn’t much different from whenever Clark or Bruce were angry at anything.

Reaching the room where Rouge was being kept at, Shadow was at the very least relieved to see that she had very few bandages on her - only a few on her torso, covering the area at which she had been stabbed. There was no sign of Omega in the room, though as Shadow walked in and approached Rouge the two human speedsters were right behind him as he spoke concernedly: 

“Rouge, are you alright?”

“Shadow?” Rouge asked, sitting up in her hospital bed as Shadow rushed into the room and to her side, with Rouge hardly having time to say anything else as Shadow trailed on:

“What happened? How bad is it?”

“Shadow” Rouge stopped him from going on, “I’m fine, it was just a stab wound, already had my stitches put in. Though, there was at least one casualty.”

“I know” Shadow nodded, “I was filled in on the way here.”

“Then I guess I don’t have to bore you with all of the details” Rouge remarked back before returning herself back to what Shadow was serious about, “But seriously it’s okay Shadow, I should make a speedy recovery, the doc says I only need a bit of time to rest and let the stitches set in.”

Shadow nodded yet again, though found himself incapable of saying anything more. There was plenty in his mind that he wanted to say, though instead he remained staring blankly at the room around him while only the ambient sound of the ventilation filled it. Barry and Wally just stood idly by, perhaps also kept silent by how awkward this had become or perhaps wanting to give Shadow and Rouge the space to discuss things without interruption. Shadow wanted to mention something about what he had discovered, though there was still one more question that he quickly - nigh immediately - felt more important:

“Where’s Omega?” he asked, to which Rouge was quick to answer:

“He’s in a separate room, getting repairs and recharged. He stood his ground but was still pretty banged up.”

“I, see.”

“Shadow” Rouge said as she cupped one of the ultimate lifeform’s hands, giving him an assured smile, “It’s alright, we’re gonna make full recoveries.”

“You wouldn’t have to if I had been there.”

“Shadow, it’s not your fault, we had no way of anticipating an ambush.”

Yet again there was silence in the room as after but a single ‘hmph’, Shadow found that he had nothing to say. Rouge herself found much the same, though it was at the very least only a brief period before that feeling passed over her and she had but one more thing to ask of Shadow:

“So what about you? Did you find anything interesting on your little trip?”

Shadow’s eyes widened when he heard those words; he didn’t know to respond to them. He checked in the cuffs of one of his gloves and indeed he found that the three photographs he had taken from the past were still in his possession. However, he didn’t want to give them to Rouge at first. Or at least he wasn’t sure if he should, not wanting her to risk getting enjoyed like this again.

However, looking at the look in her eyes was ultimately enough to get Shadow to concede. Bowing his head, he handed the pictures over to her while explaining them:

“I found these pictures in an underwater soleanna lab. I think they may have some connection to Mephiles, or at least whatever it is he’s after.”

As Shadow handed the photos over to Rouge and she held them in her hands, Barry and Wally went over to her side as well in order to get a look at them as well. All three of them were silent, with the first image looked at being the one of the phoenix-like bird of fire flying above a set of what appeared to be 52 planets - all of them set on fire while a field of horrifically well detailed echidna skulls surrounded the planets like stars in the night sky.

It was enough to make Rouge a fair bit alarmed, as she said:

“What is this trying to say?”

“Looks like a bird” Wally commented, “A phoenix, literally lighting entire planets on fire.”

“Well that’s being literal” Rouge answered, “Must be some end of the world prophecy. This is clearly ancient echidna art, they have a knack for doing these sorts of things, but this one seems even more grim than their other predictions…”

With her voice trailing, Rouge went to the second image of the three. The one in which two darkly painted humanoid figures - one being bald while the other sporting four eyes, long hair and horns - were clashing before what appeared to be a large circular object. Rouge was more concerned rather than alarmed, though Barry was far more feeling the latter as his eyes witnessed this.

Rouge was the one who spoke first, however:

“What? What is this trying to say? Two of their gods fighting?”

“No” Barry, staring at the image from over Rouge’s shoulder, said in a hushed tone, “They’re showing how the last timeline...ended.”

“What?”

“Unc” Wally said as all three of the others looked at Barry, “What are you talking about?”

“Cyborg” Barry explained, “Vic, to defeat Darkseid and Trigon, he opened a boom tube somewhere. I think it was a black hole or something but I didn’t exactly get a chance to ask him, but it sucked both of them and all of Apokolips in. That literally appears to be what this...art...is depicting….and, I have no explanation for that. At all…”

Yet again there was a moment of silence in the room.

At least until Wally remarked:

“Well...I certainly missed a lot…”

“Be happy that you did, kid” was Barry’s only response. Remembering all of this was horrible enough for him, imagining what fate could have befallen Wally had he been there was not something he felt like thinking about more than he already had.

“Anyway” Shadow cleared his throat in order to divert attention back to the photographs, “There’s one last image that I’m particularly concerned with.”

“Oh?” Rouge replied, quickly checking the image out. Of course, it was the photograph of echidna hieroglyphics. It wasn’t as foreboding as the murals, though given it’s being paired with them it was no doubt potentially related. Nevertheless, they still were just words - as Rouge said: “Well, this one is just some echidna hieroglyphics.”

“I know” Shadow nodded, “I was wondering if you would be able to translate them for me, since I have a feeling that what they say could have some insight into Mephiles.”

“Hm, well” Rouge nodded as she looked at the photograph again, “Luckily for you I do happen to have experience in deciphering these things. Let’s see what we got here.”

There was a pause from Shadow, Barry and Wally as they let Rouge translate the words in the photograph. It was a bit of an awkward silence, goosebump inducing for that matter, though it was necessary if they wanted to get anything done. It also proved to not last very long at all either way, as before they it had even sunk in they heard Rouge’s voice begin reading the words in the image aloud for all of them to know:

“Abandon all hope should the union of three lord over the seven servers; This world and all others shall be scorched by their wrath; Tyranny and despair shall prevail for all eternity.”

After reading such an ominous text, Rouge’s eyes widened and her ears even perked up as she looked at an equally stunned Shadow - neither of them having any remote idea of what to say. Barry and Wally were much the same, looking at each other and at their companions as if hoping the other would have an explanation for what they had just heard.

However, truth be told that none of the four had any answer for this.

They had ideas, but before any of them could open their mouths to even offer a single question the door to the room slid itself open and their attention was directed to a figure walking in. A figure who was none other than Gretchen Goode.

Walking herself into the room, Gretchen Goode made herself both known as well as made it seem as though she was utterly unaware of what the four had been talking about prior to her entry:

“I see you made it back to the ship safely, Shadow! Of course, that’s no surprise to me.”

“Hmph”; Shadow honestly didn’t have anything to say to her. 

Putting aside his lackluster response, Gretchen maintained a calm smile to her face as she continued on with that she had entered the room to say:

“Well, I do happen to have news that may be of interest to all of you.”

“What’s goin’ down?” Wally asked, raising a brow at this being dropped onto them. Gretchen’s smile remained as she elaborated:

“Well, I recently received intel that a group of violent individuals - not too unlike the ones you described attacking you at angel island, are currently raiding a dig site in the Soleanna Desert; while the archaeologists are still there, I may add.”

Shadow, Barry and Wally wasted little time in beginning to take their leave from the room. They knew they didn’t precisely have time to waste if such a thing was going down. However, they were also joined by Rouge, who actually got herself out of the hospital bed - wincing a bit as she did so, having to hold her side momentarily as it was the first time she got onto her feet after what had happened prior. Turning to look at her, Shadow was quick to tell her:

“No” shaking his head, “You should stay here and recover.”

“Shadow” Rouge sternly remarked as she looked right up at his face, “I’m not a child, and you’re not my father.”

“But-”

“I’m fine” the bat said as she walked herself towards Shadow, “I just need to get myself out of this gown and into a proper suit, and I’ll be as good as I was before it even happened!”

“Oh, Rouge” Gretchen Goode suddenly chimed in, seemingly concerned about Rouge’s wellbeing herself, “I don’t know, your stitches may not have set in yet. Perhaps it is in your best interest that you stay here - at least for a little while longer!”

“With all due respect ma’am” Rouge responded, “I’m going.”

Gretchen seemed unsure of how to respond, instead she said nothing and merely turned her view to Shadow as if curious to see if he had anything more to say on this subject. However, after looking over at Rouge and then back at Goode, Shadow only gave the military leader a silent nod to show approval of Rouge’s decision rather than anything else.

Seeing the writing on the wall, so to speak, Gretchen then stepped aside as if to allow Shadow, Rouge, Barry and Wally to walk their way out of the room - which of course the four did.

Without saying a single word more.

Before the group knew it, they were already traversing the vast desert that took up the near entirety of the island’s eastern half. A vast expanse of bronze sand illuminated by the scorching heat of the sun’s rays spread out before their eyes while they traversed the wide open ‘fields’ of rolling sand dunes which decorated the landscape as though they were waves of the ocean only frozen in time, with scant appearances of rocks and long since submerged ruins of a time long gone by.

Entire pathways of stone, many parts of them eroded away by the grains of sands carried forth by the wind, silently told the tale of what had once been a prosperous civilization. Statues of various ancient figures also occasionally peeked from the confining dunes, though they too were not without their age and damage.

Yet still, the four of them road on.

The hovercrafts they were given glistened brightly whenever the sun shined down onto them, their light reflecting off of their surface in a manner that could very well blind anything unfortunate enough to gaze directly at it. Primarily grey with black and red as secondary colors, the crafts each had but a single seat and a large circular, disc-like shape to the front where their engines made an almost soothing humming sound as they were used to traverse the landscape while hardly leaving a single track.

Shadow, Rouge, Barry and Wally all rode on these side by side with one another, googles over their eyes to protect from any potential sand. It was certainly hot, though there was no time for a water break.

As to be expected, Rouge was indeed dressed in a suit rather than that most unflattering hospital gown - in fact it looked as though she had never been injured at all, as she was back in an outfit nearly identical to the one she had on before and seemed perfectly fine operating her own vehicle. 

Even so, Shadow was not one to take chances; especially if the same perpetrators were potentially involved in their current objective.

Speaking of which:

“So” Barry said to the others via a communication device he and the others had attached to their ears, “How much further until our destination?”

“I’m assuming we just wait until we start seeing explosions and debris flying everywhere?” Wally chimed in, “I mean, that’s usually how this works, in case you forgot.”

“Right, well I guess I walked into that one.”

“Yup.”

Though he did sigh, Shadow still clarified things for the two of them:

“According to commander Goode, they are attacking one of the dig sites, so it shouldn’t be too far. However, it’s strange how there aren’t any signs of a struggle.”

“Yeah, exactly what I’m saying!” Wally replied, “Either we’re off course, or somethin’s up!”

“That or both, kid” Barry added.

“Hey!” the group were distracted by the sound of Rouge’s voice loudly exclaiming, “What are those?”

“Huh?”

“What’s what, Rouge?” Shadow asked, looking in Rouge’s direction as all of them stopped their vehicles just as she herself did, at which point they noticed Rouge looking and pointing to two large pillars that had suddenly appeared from nothing - as if they had emerged from the sand without warning.

They were tall, sandstone constructed columns. They were withered with age with more than enough cracks to spare, though atop of them rested stunningly detailed eagles while across their cylinder trunks were rows of painted arrows pointing in the same direction as one another: something which did not go unnoticed from the group.

“I think they’re forming some kind of path for us.” Rouge remarked, noting how their arrows looked, “Maybe we should follow?”

“Or, or or or” Barry was quick to suppose, “They’re leading us into a trap. I’ve watched more than enough movies to know that is _always_ an option in these situations.”

“We don’t have the time to debate” Shadow was quick to interrupt, “Let’s just keep moving.” and with that he turned on the engines to his hovercraft and drove according to the arrows on the pillars, with the other three silently following after him in quick succession. As he had just said, there wasn’t enough time for them to debate about it any further - they had to keep moving.

Ultimately, Rouge’s theory seemed to be correct. With each pair of pillars that they traveled through, another pair sprung up not very far ahead, at times slightly off in positioning as if to encourage the group to make turns just like that of the winding, slithering sands themselves.

Of course, Rouge couldn’t help but remark.

“Told you so~”

Barry however just grumbled in a defeated response, both not having anything to say and also feeling embarrassed about it.

The group followed these mysterious pillars as they emerged, following them down a winding path through and even over the various dunes of sand that surrounded them. At first it did not seem like they were heading towards anything peculiar at all, as at first all they came across were hills of scorching hot sand and more columns rising from it. 

However, that was not the case forever.

Eventually they did stumble across what appeared to be the archaeological dig site, though what it looked like by the time they had arrived was not precisely what they were hoping for. 

The site was the ruins of what appeared to be a plaza. There was an obelisk with various ancient writing across itself, in the center of what appeared to be a circular amphitheatre like set of sandstone seats heading downwards into the ground from where the group had parked their hovercrafts. There were signs of archaeology in the area in the way of tents and modern day technology scattered about, though it was the way in which they were strewn about that concerned the group as they began walking around the area.

What made things worse is that there were not only blackened residue of explosions both in the sand, but also one some of the stone seating. Let alone the fact that there were puddles and even trails of fresh blood, yet no signs of any corpses.

It was the latter that concerned Barry in particular. Already he could picture the Paradooms springing from behind some of the tattered, torn tents and lunging themselves at the group right then they had their guards down.

He could feel the hair on the back of his neck rising and goosebumps tingling throughout his entire body, as the entire time they walked down towards the obelisk he was ready for an ambush. As ready as he was though, he didn’t know if _he_ could handle it. The last thing he wanted was for Wally to be subjected to those abominations, to such a fate. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he had to watch such a thing unfold.

Even the sound of Wally’s voice calling out made him jump from being so on edge:

“Yo, archaeologists?! Are you here?! Are you alive?! It’s alright! We’re the good guys!”

“W-Wally!” Barry exclaimed, “Not so loud!”

“Uh, unc, we’re here to rescue people?”

“I-I know, b-but…”

“Barry does have a point” Shadow said as he and Rouge were right at where the obelisk was, Rouge herself checking it out and using her gloved hand to get some of the dust off as he continued on, “We’ve arrived late, the attackers could still be within earshot.”

Then Rouge’s investigative voice distracted him, as well as the others:

“You appear, glorious in the sky’s horizon, great bird of fire, beginner of life! Arisen over the eastern horizon, you filled the land with your beauties. Your fiery wings decree whom shall inherit your land, and whom shall perish. All of Soleanna obeys only you, your great, radiant imminence. Elevated far above all others, may your reign be perpetual light.”

“What are you reading, Rouge?” Wally asked, rushing his way over to her in order to look at the obelisk she was reading - she even said as such:

“Just what’s written on in this obelisk” she explained, “It appears to be-”

“Ancient Soleannan”

That voice did not come from either of the four, and upon hearing it all of them curiously turned their heads in its direction. It was a feminine voice, though not one that any of them recognized. However, they had no reason to be alarmed as it was a caucasian woman - middle aged, with shoulder length brown hair that had bangs across her forehead; her brown eyes having glasses atop of them and her body dressed in khaki pants with a white collared shirt tucked into it. She had plenty of dust and scrapes on her though overall seemed fine as she cautiously approached them, continuing on with her words:

“The text, it’s an ancient Soleannan hymn to their sun god, Solaris.”

“Solaris…” Shadow muttered to himself beneath his breath, before looking at this woman and asking: “Who are you?”

“Can I know who you are all, first?” she responded, “I don’t know if you haven’t noticed but, I’m pretty much alone out here...I just need to know if you’re trustworthy.”

“Don’t worry” Shadow nodded, “We’re with G.U.N.”

“Oh thank god” the woman was quite relieved to here that, a smile actually appearing across her face as she now more confidently approached them, “It was about time you showed up, ever since that festival this entire country’s gone to Hell in a hand basket.”

“Oh, we know” Rouge replied, “But besides that, are you alright? Looks like we missed out on something big.”

“I’m fine” the woman explained, though she bowed her head as she explained, “But the rest of my colleagues aren’t so lucky. We were excavating the ruins here when out of nowhere...these, women attacked us. These five, seemingly alien women, with the kind of powers they seemed to possess, either that or they had chaos emeralds on them. They just began slaughtering us, left and right. I was lucky to find a place in some of the rock formations to hide, though I’m sad to say that nobody else seems to have been that lucky…”

“It’s alright” Barry said, placing a hand onto the woman’s back to comfort her, “You were an unarmed civilian, there’s not much you could have done.”

“I….I know…”

“Anyway, we can’t dwell on that right now” Shadow interjected sternly, “We need to escort you back to the city, though it would be beneficial to know what you were looking into precisely - for insight as to why the group may have attacked you.”

“I really can’t tell you why they attacked us” the archaeologist explained, “We were really just minding our own business when they assaulted the site like maniacs; though if it was for something we were investigating, we did just uncover this…”

As her voice trailed off, she pulled out from the backpack she had strapped to her person an item which left Shadow and Rouge both astonished - it was what appeared to be a perfect replica of the Scepter of Darkness. It had the same glass crystal body encased in finely crafted, ornate rock; complete with the carved out falcon wings on either side. Of course it was empty and devoid of any actual darkness, though that was a given. With widened eyes, Rouge couldn’t help but remark:

“How did you get this?”

“I found it buried in the sand” the archaeologist explained, “Not long after I did, those insane women showed up and attacked us.”

“What…” Shadow asked as he too remained stunned by this turn of events, “What was your name, again?”

“Oh, It’s Helena Sandsmark, I-”

Before any further word could be said, they were interrupted by what sounded and felt like something flying right past them. The sound of the wind whipping past them resulted in their eyes directing right onto what appeared to be a black arrow having suddenly found itself lodged in the sand. 

Curious as this was though, the fact of the matter was that this arrow was beeping.

Realizing what this was, Shadow shouted accordingly:

“MOVE!”

And like that, the group made sure to evade the impending explosion just as it was set off. Shadow ducked and carried Rouge out of the way, while Barry took Helena and dashed her to a save area behind a rock formation tall enough to hide her. Wally was quick enough to swiftly escape the explosion’s blast radius.

However, there was the object of the hour to worry about: the scepter, which had been dropped from Helena’s arms in the commotion though miraculously seemed unharmed from the explosion’s blast.

“The scepter!” Rouge called out, noting it’s position so far out in the open.

“Don’t worry! I’m on it!” Wally replied, rushing at his fast speed towards the scepter - managing to just barely snag it as a hail of multiple explosive arrows rained down upon him, one after another each of them exploding in a circular pattern as he raced around the sandstone seats and from there up to the top of the obelisk - managing to spot the source of the arrows from afar just before one last explosion forced the structure itself to crumble to the ground.

Landing on his feet, Wally immediately went to his communicator to contact them as he continued to outrun hails of arrows.

“Snipers!” he said, “Two of them, off in the distance!”

“Copy that” Shadow responded, nodding, “I’ll take-”

Before they could even share any more dialogue, suddenly the group were grabbed by what appeared to be a literal blob of darkness emerging from beneath them; with the sound of a bird’s cry echoing in the distance Shadow, Rouge and Barry found themselves constricted by this snake-like blob and lifted into the air before being slammed down onto the sand beneath their feet with loud, crashing thuds accompanying them.

The hail of arrows stopped temporarily as Wally looked to see what was going on - however his moment of decreased speed was enough for one more arrow to be fired. This one had contained with it a rope that snared Wally successfully, wrapping around him and making him drop onto the desert ground below.

Not even Helena was safe, as her hands were forced behind her back and she let out a cry of sudden, sharp pain as a figure emerged from behind her and began dragging her out into the distance besides the others.

As Shadow, Rouge and Barry recovered they were reunited with familiar faces. Familiar, colorless faces. Nega Raven, Nega Starfire, Nega Wondergirl and Nega Wonder Woman had arrived to greet them yet again with their grayscale, red-eyed presence - all of them descending from above and getting in battle ready positions surrounding the trio of heroes. Nega Damian had also arrived and was the figure holding Helena Sandsmark hostage, holding a tight grip on her arm.

However, they still were not the only members of the villainous group: as with a thud Wally was plopped roughly down right next to the main trio, and it was by not only Nega Speedy but another figure as well: a new figure. He was greyscale and red-eyed like the others, though based on his appearance he was a man not far removed from Barry’s age - with light skin and a goatee upon his chin. His costume went well with Speedy’s, having an archer theme to it; though this larger and even more muscular man sported a hood with his in addition to his arrow quiver.

Looking at him made Barry wince his eyes. He could swear that something was incredibly familiar about him, but he had no recollection of him at all. 

Even still, yet another figure drew this response: a fifth and final feminine figure emerged from behind the others. Though she yet again was technically grayscale and sported glowing eyes of red it could still be told from her general appearance that she was a rather slender woman about Diana’s age, though she sported far lighter hair. Her suit was black in color, and was of a bustier-leotard combination with the leggings being more of a gray and tapering down to black combat boots - her look finished with a short leather jacket that barely reached beyond her chest, fingerless gloves, and a choker on her neck 

She too was a figure that Barry swore in his mind that he recognized - in fact it gave him a headache trying to recall any memory about her at all, but alas he was unable to.

There was not enough time to do so anyway, as before long Shadow - gritting his teeth, commented:

“I’m going to assume this is the group that attacked you earlier?”

“No, not us” Rouge answered, “Do you know these people?”

“As a matter of fact, I do” - and with that remark Shadow wasted no time springing himself into action. Nega Raven attempted to act, trying to yet again use her magical abilities, this time generating several daggers that she attempted to plunge directly at Shadow as he jumped into the air - only for him to spin into his ball form, shattering them all he barrelled at her far too fast for her make any meaningful attempt to stop it. Slamming directly into her head, he managed to swiftly knock her to the ground - though this immediately drew the attention of the others. 

Nega Diana held out a hand to stop the mysterious new nega from attacking Shadow herself, as if to claim him as her fight before they yet again charged at each other and clashed fists. A shockwave emitted from the impact. The blows they traded afterwards was nothing short of impressive either, such as Shadow managing to kick Diana’s sword away with his feet or Diana successfully blocking a direct punch from Shadow - forcing Shadow off to the side. She managed to land a hit to him and knock him completely to the ground via elbowing his back, though he swept her to the ground as well with a sweeping kick.

Diana soon had to roll as Shadow fired a chaos spear at her head, with Diana’s retaliation being to toss her shield right at him.This proved to be her undoing however, as after successfully swaying to evade it, Shadow grabbed it and threw it right back towards her. 

Any real Diana would have easily been able to deal with the blow, though for Nega Diana the speed and sheer strength which Shadow exerted to toss it left her defenseless enough that the shield itself managed to slit her throat wide open. At first, everyone - Barry and Wally especially so - as they saw the blood spatter and heard the gurgling from Nega Diana’s face, however they ultimately couldn’t be too shocked as the blood was not red but instead a rather bright shade of green.

Then came the reveal of Nega Diana’s true form.

Churning and shifting, her body shifted into that of what can best be described as a human sized insect. A body overall akin to that of a hornet, though with a posture more akin to that of a mantis as while it’s thorax remained horizontal, it’s abdomen tilted more vertically. It’s eyes were monocolored, a piercing green while it’s thorax and abdomen were painted a striped mix of blood red and jet black, with sharp spikes across the center of it’s back. Supporting itself were two pairs of sturdy yet also scrawny legs upon its thorax, while it’s two arms had long dagger like appendages just above it’s two-clawed hands.

It should also be stated that indeed, this creature was not injured by the neck attack - in fact the shield itself completely vanished as it’s true appearance was exposed. It still had a cut across its neck, though as it reared up with it’s antennae flaring and hissed angrily at the absolutely stunned Shadow it was evident it was in no such mortal injury. 

Barry, Rouge, Helena and Wally were absolutely stunned by this as well - their mouths agape and eyes widened as much as they possibly could. All Barry could even manage to say was:

“Well, that certainly isn’t Diana….”

There wasn’t any time to dwell on this revelation yet though - as the insectoid beast immediately pounced itself onto Shadow. Guided solely by instinct and reflexes Shadow had to accept being forced onto his back on the ground though still managed to firmly grasp the creature’s claws as they threatened to stab into its head while it stood atop him with its mandibles drooling and gnawing while emitting even more monstrous sounds.

Rouge, Barry and Wally attempted to go to Shadow’s aid - though they were stopped by the others. Nega Starfire fired her energy blasts directly at Rouge, forcing Rouge to take to the sky with her in hot pursuit. As they clashed with each other in the sky, Barry attempted to make a run at Shadow and the beast he was pinned by though was stopped from doing so by Nega Wonder Girl who managed to lasso him. Tightening her grip, the lasso still glowed as Barry struggled to break free from it.

Wally meanwhile managed to vibrate out of his own confinement, though the moment he managed to do so he was attacked by Nega Raven who yet again tried to grab at him with her psionic powers - only by using his speed was he able to avoid the grab of the hand she had conjured up. However both she and the two archers - Nega Speedy and the man accompanying him, kept their eyes on the blur that he had become. Yet another barrage of arrows was fired into the sky, raining down onto the sand to deliver explosions across the landscape.

Yet Wally managed to evade each and every single one.

At his damn near top speed he charged directly at the adult archer once the barrage was complete, narrowly avoiding a blast of Raven’s magic which instead hit Nega Speedy and caused him to explode to pieces instead while Wally’s elbow collided harshly with the gut of the adult archer - sending him to the ground complete with a shockwave from his impact with the sandstone ruins beneath him.

While Nega Speedy’s remains morphed into chunks of burnt insectoid matter, the older archer however turned to color. His skin turned caucasian, his hair and goatee blonde, and his suit as well as arrows a clear green color. He even began speaking, letting out audible groans as he held his head with one hand. The sight shocked Wally, though it wasn’t dissimilar at all to what happened when his uncle had freed him. Realizing that, he went to the man as he began sitting up and said:

“Are you alright?”

“Other than the piercing headache and feeling like I’m having an absolutely brutal hangover, yeah I’m doing great” the man sarcastically responded, just as Wally chuckled a bit and helped him back to his feet, “Green Arrow.”

“Kid Flash.”

“Great, now MOVE!” and with that both Green Arrow and Wally had to speed into action. Arrow jumped into the air and Wally sped out on foot to avoid a blast from Nega Raven’s powers. As the smoke and dust from the resulting explosion cleared, Nega Raven had a barrage of Arrows fired at her in the formation of a circle. She pulled up an energy shield to protect herself from any ensuing blast though instead was met with the arrows emitting even more and longer lasting clouds of smoke around her instead.

Relinquishing her shield, she flew herself out of the smoke only to leave herself wide open to an arrow that did actually explode - though not directly on her, rather just before hitting her, however it was more than enough to send her flying back towards the ground. Or at least into a roundhouse kick from Wally that sent her slamming directly into a rock.

Once her head slanted downwards as if she was yet again knocked out of commission, she too seemed to regain her coloration. Her skin turned to more of a pale caucasian look, and her outfit turned to a mix of deep blues and violets, with red rubies on her belt and holding her hooded cape. Beginning to deduce how this worked, Wally rushed right over to her side and kneeled down while seeing Green Arrow turn his attention to firing at Nega Donna, getting her to release Barry from her grip so that the two could fight her together.

Wally knelt down beside Raven and held her head with one hand, saying in a calm voice:

“You turned back to color so I’m hoping you’re both okay and on our side now” he said, “Please tell me my hunch is right…”

As he gently shook and held her, she winced and whined a bit before beginning to open her eyes. She once again had color in them, a deep blue - nearly violet, color; with her sclera having been restored to its natural white. Looking at Wally she weakly said:

“Thank...you…”

“Don’t mention it!”

Raven was about to say something, but her voice had to quickly rise to a sharp shout as something else caught her attention:

“Look out!”

“Huh-AH!” Wally barely had enough time to react before a katana wielded by Nega Damian was plunged right towards him. He and Raven were both lucky enough to dodge the attack, forcing the sword to instead be plunged directly into the rock - though Nega Damian was quick to pull it back out and maintain battle stance while glaring at an equally battle ready Wally. 

He could tell immediately who it was just by looking him up and down.

“Well, you’re not Dick” he remarked, “So I take it you’re the son of Batman I heard so much about. That or some overgrown wasp pretending to be him!”

That last remark prompted Nega Damian to charge at Wally, brandishing his Katana, however not only did Wally use his speed to slide and evade him, but just as Damian swung his sword and body in the other direction to strike at the speedster again he found himself trapped in the now purple aura of Raven’s psionic powers - still conscious though utterly unable to move as he was held in her grasp.

“Stop!” Raven exclaimed, clamping one of her fists tightly as she held the Nega Robin firmly with her powers. However, looking at his face she couldn’t help but curl her brows into that of a face filled with sorrow, her voice turning from a demand to more of a plea as she could only softly mutter out “please…”

Holding him firmly in her grasp, she had all the power to destroy him right then and there - yet she couldn’t. Looking at his face as it looked back at her rendered her emotionally powerless. Gritting her teeth, tears began to stream from her eyes as she begged fate to not make her have to do this.

Gripping her fist together, she could feel the tears beginning to drip from the bottom of her face down onto the sand beneath her feet.

Looking at his face, even as it and the rest of him remained trapped within the hold of her dark violet aura and even as it snarled at her in contemptuous rage, she couldn’t yet bring herself to harm him any further. If at all, for that matter.

She would have to battle with her own mind in order to do what must be done.

_Not again…_

_Please, don’t make me watch this again…._

_No….no...Raven...it’s not him…._

_You need to remember...it’s not him!_

Closing her eyes tightly and gritting her teeth, she waved her arm upwards as she released her hand, as though she was throwing something upwards towards the sky. Which she was, as she had to send Nega Damian flying towards Nega Starfire just as the latter had Rouge slammed down to the ground. Nega Damian struck Nega Kori just as she fired one of her charged grayed energy blasts - and with Nega Damian deploying some of his batarangs just before impact both of them promptly exploded upon contact. Their remains morphed to those of the insectoid beasts as they proceed to rain down onto the sand.

Even though it was neither the real Damian nor the real Koriand’r, Raven still fell to her knees and kept her head towards the sand, covering her face with her hands as her grief overcame her. At the very least she had someone, Wally, to kneel beside her and place a hand on her shoulder as comfort. 

Even Rouge looked at her with sympathy as she got back onto her feet, though she had little time to thank her for the save as soon the bat’s attention was taken to the other three’s struggles.

Fortunately, Nega Donna and the monster that had been posing as Diana were short lived at this point. The insectoid beast had just then been stabbed right through it’s abdomen by a chaos spear courtesy of Shadow, letting out it’s shrieking death throes before Shadow at last kicked it’s corpse off of him. Just in time, as Nega Donna had successfully used her lasso to grapple and slam Green Arrow into Barry, knocking both of the men to the ground and could have potentially finished her had it not been for Shadow then hurling himself in ball form right into her arm - completely cutting it off with but a single strike in the process.

Of course, it also revealed to them that she was not an enthralled person but indeed a monster just as her ‘mentor’ had been, for ‘her’ true insectoid form was exposed as ‘she’ screamed and screeched with the loss of her arm. The revelation meant that Barry and Green Arrow no longer had to hold back however, and as such a single slide kick from Barry sent ‘Donna’ into the air where she was finished off by a single electric arrow to her abdomen courtesy of the man in green, the voltage from the projectile being enough to end her by the time she landed back on the ground.

Green Arrow with a smirk even quipped:

“Consider that bug, zapped.”

However, even as Barry, Shadow, Rouge and Green Arrow grouped up yet again their battle still was not over. In the commotion they had forgotten about the last remaining ‘Nega’ being - that of that woman whom Barry struggled to remember. Standing before the four of them with a glare in her pure red eyes, she twisted her head and neck in preparation for incoming conflict, and the others had much the same sentiment.

At least, save for Green Arrow.

Looking at her face he came very quickly to know precisely who it was, and with widened eyes and a shocked tone he said:

“Dinah?”

“Who-” Barry wasn’t able to finish that thought, for within mere moments Nega Dinah released her ability onto them all - that being her canary cry. An ear piercing, glass shattering sonic cry that very well could have killed them let alone leave them with severe damage to their ear drums. Within mere seconds the entire area was filled with the echoing sounds of her wailing cry, and all four of the heroes who stood before her grabbed their ears in pain and fell to their knees if not to the ground.

There wasn’t even enough time for Green Arrow to have warned them about this.

However, not all hope was lost. Raven and Wally were lucky to have been out of the direct radius of the cry itself - though they of course were more than able to hear it with how loud it was. Looking off in the direction of the noise, the two of them were able to see Nega Dinah managing to keep the other four at bay with her sonic call, though seeing as how the woman was currently remaining stationary Wally knew what to do. Turning to Raven he said to her:

“Wait here, I’ll handle this and be right on back!” before of course, speeding on.

As to be expected, Raven didn’t exactly have the time to respond to him at all.

It mattered not though, as Wally had more than enough speed to approach Nega Dinah swiftly - in a matter of mere seconds for that matter. He was preparing a charged speed-assisted punch to her in the hopes of either freeing or exposing her as with the others, though the moment he would have made contact with her she dissipated in a cloud of darkness and instead he merely swung at the fading smoke and ultimately landed face first in the sand.

However, with her gone there were no further hostels to fight and such the group finally had a much needed period of time to recover. Shadow, Rouge, Green Arrow and Barry got up still rubbing at their ears and groaning, while Wally had to spit sand out of his mouth. Raven meanwhile quietly approached them, being the only one relatively unharmed in comparison.

Of the group, it was Barry who spoke up first:

“Okay so that certainly is a lot of information to take in at once, but I’ll start with first what the hell are-were those...things, and second is Ms. Sandsmark okay?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine!” thankfully, Helena indeed emerged from behind the rubble of the obelisk, she had plenty of dust and sand on her but was otherwise unharmed as she approached the group with plenty of relief in her voice, “I’m sorry I wasn’t much help but, I don’t exactly have superpowers.”

“It’s alright ma’am” Barry smiled, “We’re just glad you made it out safely.”

“Well” Green Arrow then directed the attention over to himself, “That still leaves the question about the big scary shapeshifting man sized hornets from hell.”

“Changelings” Raven’s voice uttered, directing everyone over to her as she approached them while she elaborated further in their moment of silence, “Those creatures are changelings. They have the ability to take the form of powers of anyone or anything that they….consume.”

The fact that saying that last word made her tone shift to a more saddened, pained one was not lost on the likes of Barry and Wally. 

“C-Consume?” Green Arrow was alarmed by that, and it didn’t take him long to ask “Dinah, is she-”

“Black Canary is enthralled” Raven answered before he could finish his worrying, “She is under Mephiles’ direct control, but is otherwise fine.”

Green Arrow quieted down then, unnerved that Dinah was under a form of mind control though relieved that it actually was her. However, Barry couldn’t help but become more than curious as he realized that something just wasn’t adding up with the way this Raven was talking; in addition he still had no idea who this Green Arrow actually was or why he had previously been enthralled:

“Hold on, how do you know who Mephiles is?” he asked, “Wally didn’t have any idea when he was freed from being, enthralled, and….” he looked at Green Arrow and paused, though the only response he got was a shrug:

“I have no idea who or what ‘Mephiles’ is myself.”

Raven was about to speak, but just as she looked up and opened her mouth to do so she found herself frozen in place. Within moments she was holding her head as though she had a piercing migraine, bringing her to her knees within a matter of seconds. The others approached her, alarmed by her presence, though once her head tilted upwards and her eyes opened wide Shadow held out an arm to prevent anyone from getting closer.

They had reason to do so before long, for once her head tilted back to look at them they could see her eyes had yet again changed. However, not to pure red; Instead, only her sclera were red. The rest of her eyes had shifted to an emerald green color - with the pupils becoming rhombus shaped. Exactly like _his_.

Even the look on her face shifted from a relatively neutral look to that of an uncharacteristically sinister grin as she seemed to begin laughing menacingly - her voice shifting from her softer feminine one to a far more masculine one. Shadow, Rouge and Barry recognized the sound of the laughter as none other than Mephiles himself, though they had no time to respond to this as soon enough Raven went the way of Dinah and too dissipated in a cloud of darkness that was washed away by the wind’s breeze.

There was a long pause between the lot of them in response though, all of them having their eyes wide and mouths agape as they processed what they had just witnessed.

Though, at least one of them had to break this silence: 

“Okay…” Green Arrow commented after shaking his head back to reality, “Can we get out of this desert now because I’m pretty sure shit is about to get even crazier.”

“Yes” Helena added, “I’d very much appreciate that escort back to Soleanna now.”

“We’ll be leaving shortly” Shadow said to the group, “But first I need to make sure that we still have the scepter in our possession.”

Wally immediately grabbed and felt around himself for the scepter, confident that he was the last person in possession of it. However it was to no avail as much to his shock and embarrassment he found it was indeed not on his person at all. Luckily for him though he did not have to say as such, since Rouge happily reported to Shadow:

“Not to worry, I have it right here” she said while holding the scepter in her hands, “It was dropped in the sand during all of the commotion, made sure to pick it up the moment I saw it.”

“Good” Shadow nodded, turning to Sandsmark to promptly ask, “I hope you don’t have any complaints about us taking it.”

“You’re G.U.N., remember?” she snarked back in response, “I’m in no position to say no to you at all.”

“Very well then” Shadow then began marching back towards where they had parked their hovercrafts, which miraculously had been out of the way of the previous battle, “Then let’s get Ms. Sandsmark back to Soleanna and report back to the ship.”

Though it was very needless to say, the lot of them were all more than ready to take their leave of the desert. The ocean of sand was better left to the scorpions. 

It was ultimately thankful that the group had brought four hovercrafts with them, as Helena and Green Arrow were easily able to occupy two while Barry and Wally stayed with the group on foot using their speed. Ultimately the ride back to Soleanna was uneventful, as it was very much like the ride they had taken on their way to the dig site in the first place. Most of the group was silent and fixated on the landscape ahead of them, with Shadow for instance having his mind preoccupied about what exactly happened with Raven before she vanished as well as what exactly the changeling creatures were - let alone how this was all connected to Mephiles.

Barry on the other hand had his eyes and mind fixated on Green Arrow, and in fact ran himself up close to him to ask:

“So” he said, “Who are you, again?”

“Like I told the kid, Green Arrow” the green archer responded, “I’m gonna assume you’re the Flash, if ‘Kid’ Flash is any indication.”

“Heh, yup” Barry answered back, “That’d be me alright. Anyway, I know this is gonna sound strange, but I feel like I remember you from somewhere before, but trying to think about how gives me a headache.”

“Oh yeah? I know a few people who probably feel the same way.”

“Ha!” the two shared a chuckle at that joke, Barry certainly enjoying this man’s humor, but he still had to explain things to him nonetheless: “So how’d you end up captured by Mephiles?”

“Oh so I was captured by this Mephiles guy the whole time? I thought I just blacked out or something, though I guess on further thought the hangover theory really doesn’t hold up…”

“Yeah” Barry nodded, “Before you went green, you were grey, mute, and trying to kill us. Wally over there was the same way before I snapped him back out of it.”

“Huh…” just then something within Green Arrow’s mind seemed to light up as if it had all just come to him. With a gasp he said: “Holy shit….I remember now!” as Barry listened closely, Oliver Queen was quick to explain what had happened, “Me and Dinah were minding our own business in D.C. when this big alien guy showed up out of nowhere with an army of things that were kinda like those ‘Changeling’s but beefier and without the shapeshifting, calling himself Darkseid and basically pulling the whole evil conqueror thing. So being heroes, we got to work kicking those minions’ asses, and making a pretty sweet team if I don’t say so myself….when...it all suddenly went dark.”

All the astonished Barry could say was:

“Oh my god…”

Then Rouge just had to chime in via communicator, having overheard the conversation:

“Looks like Barry found a friend!”

“Huh?” Green Arrow was confused by that, until Barry explained:

“You’re from the previous timeline.”

“The previous what?”

“Darkseid, his attack on D.C.” the speedster elaborated, “That was in the timeline before this one, before I had to make the second flashpoint!”

“I’m still not following.”

“Basically, if I run fast enough it can cause a universe wide reset of time. I’ve done that twice, right now we’re in what would be called the post-second one era, basically.”

“Ah” Green Arrow admittedly did not understand, but at least pretended to, “Well, if you reset the universe...how do I still remember the old one, exactly?”

“Wally’s the same way” Barry explained, “I think Mephiles taking you two hostage somehow prevented you from being affected by the flashpoint.”

“Well I can’t wait to be caught up on everything I missed.”

“Ha” Barry remarked, “Well you and…”

“My fiance” 

“Your fiance; missed out on being part of the Justice League, I can tell you that much.”

“The Justice League, huh?” Green Arrow quipped, “Sounds fun.”

“By the way” Wally suddenly chimed in via communicator, “You wouldn’t happen to know a Speedy, would you?”

“Speedy? Yeah, he’s my side-protege” Green Arrow answered, which excited Wally quite a lot:

“Dude!” he exclaimed, “I was _wondering_ if he had a mentor or not! Whenever I asked him about who taught him the skills he had, he kept saying he couldn’t remember! Said he ‘thought’ he taught himself!”

“Hah, oh really now?”

“Yeah” Barry added, “It appears when you’re removed from the timeline, everything and everyone left behind sort of morphs to cover your absence.”

“Convenient.”

“Yeah….” with his voice trailing off as he lost ideas for topics, Barry instead just said but one last thing; “Name’s Barry, by the way.”

“Oliver.” Green Arrow responded. 

“And I’m Rouge!” Rouge yet again chimed in via communicator, “The other guy is Shadow, by the way; just so we’re all acquainted with each other. I’m assuming you intend to stick around to help deal with Mephiles?”

“Considering he’s still got Dinah, you’re damn right I am.”

“Heh, the more the merrier!” Rouge replied, “We really do need all the help we can get with this one!”

Before Shadow himself could add anything to the conversation, he received a transmission from his communication device that was not from anyone currently in the party. His attention was immediately diverted to it as the voice of a G.U.N. operative soon spoke to him after some brief static:

“Agent Shadow, Agent Rouge” the man said, “E-123 ‘Omega’ has reported that he has engaged Mephiles at Wave Ocean, head there immediately!”

Hearing that, Shadow couldn’t help but immediately slam his foot down on the craft’s accelerator - speeding on ahead of the others with more than enough drive and determination than was honestly necessary. Luckily the others were capable of keeping up with him this time, they certainly had to if they didn’t want to miss what was coming next.


	12. Wave Ocean

_ EARLIER.... _

Not very long at all after Shadow, Rouge, Barry and Wally set out on their escapade in the desert, Gretchen Goode couldn’t help but talk a walk down the inner halls of the Kalinske. Her hands clasped together behind her back, she kept on a stone cold face as all soldiers who she passed by made sure to give her a respectful salute. She herself however paid them no mind, the task at hand was far too important for her to even entertain chit chatting with such irrelevant subordinates.

Her destination was none other than a particular room on the ship.

It’s door sliding open upon her standing close to it, she showed herself in and let it close behind her as she feasted her eyes upon the robotic body of none other than E-123 ‘Omega’.

The attack robot sat motionless in the center of the room, laid out on a metallic bed as various automated machines darted to and fro across his body, the bulk of them being robotic arms in the shape of tools; used to poke, prod, drill and even polish his various parts as he remained silently in standby mode - the rest of the room being inhabited by various humming computers and their connected monitors displaying Omega’s schematics and inner workings, the damaged sections blinking red. Having had a run in with a mind controlled kryptonian, it was a testament to the material he was made out of that he was capable of withstanding blows from her - though enough internal damage had been made to warrant significant repairs nonetheless.

Truth be told though, Gretchen Goode’s smirk as she looked down on Omega seemed to suggest she may well have expected Omega’s ability to endure - or that at least she had some ulterior motive for being here.

It can’t truly be said for how long she had stood in that room, but she was still there when Omega’s repairs were completed; she was essentially the first thing he saw upon leaving standby mode.

“Commander Gretchen Goode” he remarked, “My repairs are completed, I can now resume my objectives with Shadow and Rouge.”

Omega proceeded to step himself off of the table he was on, and from there began to walk towards the door - intent on leaving to locate his teammates on his own. Without turning to the robot, Gretchen stopped him in his tracks with but a single sentence:

“Then you’ll be happy to know we have a report regarding a recent Mephiles sighting.”

Stopping and turning his mechanical body to face her as she in turned looked back at him, hands still clasped behind her back, he answered:

“Location?”

“Wave Ocean” she responded, to which Omega remarked:

“Affirmative. Preparing Battle Systems. Priority Objective: Terminate Mephiles.”

“Excellent.”

* * *

_ PRESENT... _

Arriving at Wave Ocean as soon as they could, the group that now consisted of Shadow, Rouge, Barry, Wally and more recently Oliver set out on their search to find Omega before he made the mistake of taking on Mephiles on his own. There was too much at stake for them to take in the vast collection of islands and inlets spread out before their eyes nor the smell of the sea salt entering their nostrils, as their feet had to race across grass and sand on what was no doubt a very crunched time limit.

Shadow was determined to not repeat the same mistake he had made before.

_ We’re coming, Omega! _

_ Hang in there…. _

Before long however, the group had to stop. They had reached a wide open area of land that was far too peaceful for it to be entirely genuine; as such, Shadow quickly hid beside one of the grassy plateaus nearby and held out a hand to stop the others, motioning for them to cake cover just as he had. 

Scanning the area, all that could be seen was a wide open plain of sand with a U-shaped dock standing over the crystal blue waters of the ocean around them; with some wooden huts and parked sail boats attached. On the other side of the area was a large mountainous formation of rock, and scattered between the occasional rock and palm tree were a few on-land ‘islands’ of grass topped plateaus, with one of them being used as cover by the group of five. None of this was truly exceptional, but instead the exceptional detail was that patrolling the soft flatland of sand were squads of what appeared to be G.U.N. troops. Human men and women donned in black and dark grey helmeted military suits, armed primarily with advanced assault rifles.

Given the fact that far in the distance there was the ongoing blockade, their presence was technically to be expected.

However, in the pit of his stomach Shadow was suspicious of them. As normal as they appeared, not sporting the greyscale coloration for instance, he heard no mention of other G.U.N. forces besides Omega heading into the area, and none of these troops seemed concerned with following him at all for that matter - they were seemingly patrolling the area, marching back and forth when not standing idly by.

Perhaps they were guarding something or blocking the area off to visitors, though again Shadow’s gut was telling him something else was afoot.

Even so, the others were curious about why they had stopped for just a few human soldiers, with Oliver remarking:

“Aren’t we on their side? Why are we hiding from them?”

“Because something’s not right here” Shadow commented, peering his eyes, “I can feel it.”

“You think it’s those Changeling things again, don’t you?” Rouge responded, to which Shadow looked at her said:

“They are shapeshifters and aligned with Mephiles, it’s a distinct possibility.”

“Shadow” Rouge responded sternly, “We can’t just go around expecting everyone we see to be those hideous bug things.”

“Rouge has a point” Barry interjected, “But so does Shadow. We have to make sure.”

“Right…” Shadow nodded, “I was getting to that. Not sure what the best strategy is.”

“Well” Oliver spoke sarcastically, “Could just walk up and ask them.”

Oliver was not expecting Shadow to get up out of cover and actually walk towards the soldiers not long after he said that. Caught off guard, the man in green even remarked:

“Oh, guess we are…”

Shadow walked up to these ‘soldiers’ unafraid, though the others cautiously remained in cover behind the rocks to see what happened. The soldiers turned to Shadow as they saw him approach, though didn’t say or do anything. They kept their guns firmly in their hands and firmly in place while looking silently at the ultimate lifeform stepping his way towards them. Shadow’s eyes glanced at some of them, and he couldn’t help but notice how silent them were, let alone the rest of the beach.

He also noted that all of them were humans with no ‘anthros’ in their ranks, as well as that all of them appeared to be fair skinned caucasian human males at that. It only increased his suspicion, considering how many soldiers he could see - at least twenty of them.

His plan was to just walk past them on his way to Omega without saying a word, though obviously only if they were actually G.U.N. soldiers.

Eventually he took notice of a cave entrance with two of the soldiers on either side. Seeing as how this cave was the only way to progress beyond the massive mountain wall in the area, Shadow proceeded towards the cave until he was right up close with the soldiers standing by. At least that is, until they both moved to block Shadow from entering.

Shadow stopped in his tracks. At first staring directly ahead into the cave, though it was dark there were rays of sunlight peering into it from cracks in the mountain above it. Cracks of light that allowed him to see even more ‘soldiers’ were inside the cave, now staring back at him as if waiting to see what he would do next. 

Silently, Shadow shifted his glare from what was ahead of him to what was beside him. That is to say, the soldier to his left specifically. Glaring at each other, Shadow stared directly into his eyes.

Not a single word was shared between the two.

Merely a calm silence before all hell broke loose.

* * *

_ Elsewhere on the beach… _

He made his entrance with the booming sound of a mighty explosion. 

Many shards of rock and millions of sand grains were sent many feet all around the area from the impact of that missile with the ground. Not to mention the charred remains of a certain insectoid creature that dared to get in his way. 

It didn’t really stand a chance at all - with his sensors, Omega was able to detect it’s identity by merely scanning it’s vitals. 

It also wasn’t the only one he’d slain either. Behind him were many others that had fallen trying to impede his trek across the Soleanna shoreline. The vast majority, in fact essentially all of them, being now in pieces. A trail of carnage left in the wake of the ultimate machine.

Yet they were not the reason he was there.

Standing a good few feet ahead of the robot, was the man of the hour himself.

Mephiles.

With his back turned to Omega, Mephiles just silently looked ahead of himself, staring at the vast expanse of ocean ahead of himself as if admiring it. Or at least the silence until Omega had arrived - yet even so he did not turn to look at the machine after said commotion, as if he was either unphased or unimpressed with it. Without a mouth or even nose, reading his emotions was next to impossible.

The silence did not last long however, as Omega wasted no time in shifting his active weapons from his basic claws to that of a rapid fire machine gun - immediately letting loose a maelstrom of bullets directly at the demon in front of him.

However, Mephiles effortlessly dodged them - either teleporting or moving fast enough to evade them. 

Even as Omega within seconds changed his aim to where Mephiles shifted himself to, the demonic being still managed to immediately do the same again. With each shift of his position he drew closer to the robot, until he was within striking distance. Lunging at Omega like a cougar leaping onto its prey he ultimately only dug his claws into sand as Omega, built to do battle with the likes of Sonic, was quick enough to use his own booster engines to evade Mephiles’ lightning fast speed. 

Omega then proceeded to launch a pair of missiles directly at Mephiles, though again the demon used his flight to swiftly evade them - making them hit the sand instead.

Omega then fired a homing shot of several energy blasts from sections in his arms, as well as opening several small compartments of his abdomen to fire six red lasers directed at where Mephiles was standing. Mephiles dissipated into a cloud of darkness in order to evade them, and appeared directly behind Omega once all of these attacks had made their impact.

Sensing him, Omega quickly rotated his head and body - using his arm to block a direct downward punch from the demon before using his other hand to blast a missile directly into his face. The explosion sent both of them flying from the air and down to the sand, though still they were in perfect shape to continue their combat.

Staring directly at Omega, Mephiles still without saying a word unleashed an attack that he hadn’t truly gotten a proper chance to reveal:

His omega beams.

Firing from his eyes after but a few short seconds were optic beams of energy that fired directly at Omega. At first these were the familiar red coloring, but within mere moments of firing their sound increased in pitch and their color turned blue - implying the most horrific realization that they burned far hotter than any previous user of the beams.

Omega attempted yet again to use his boosters to escape the beams, though like heat seeking missiles they were able to lock-in on him and follow after him, making jagged turns unlike the optic beams of any other. 

Despite Omega’s best efforts to evade them in the air and firing missiles at them, the beams performed 90 degree turns in order to avoid every projectile he fired at them. However he ultimately did not have anything to fear, as the beams seemed to purposely go around his body and strike a pair of rock formations behind him instead. 

However, as if to send a message these two formerly tall pillars of rocks were reduced to little more than clouds of ash and smoke within mere seconds. As Omega turned his head to look at this, Mephiles finally began to break the violent silence between the two of them:

“I must admit, you put up an impressive fight for a machine.”

Omega was having none of it. He lunged directly at Mephiles at full speed, slamming his claws down into the sand once Mephiles yet again seemed to teleport himself behind the robot, continuing his speaking to him in a most unphased tone:

“You can battle me all you want, Omega, that doesn’t change the part you play in all of this. It only proves that you were built to stop the very ones you consider your ‘friends’.”

For a moment, Omega began to hesitate in regards to making his next move against the demon. Noting this well, Mephiles continued on with his words:

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know” he mocked, “You may have been programmed by society, but what you did Shadow in the future, that was your-”

Before the demon could finish his sentence, Omega retaliated by unleashing the homing shots from his arms and firing a full barrage of them while his hands turned into the powerful zeta energy cannons at the same time - unleashing such a fury upon Mephiles that it rivaled even the mightiest of Hell’s warriors. What’s more is that Mephiles did not even attempt to evade this attack, instead he allowed the entire thing to hit him full force.

Once the mass of smoke and dust had cleared, it seemed for a moment as though Mephiles’ entire body had been disintegrated in the assault - though with the fading sound of his laughter audible well after Omega had ended his attack it was clear that the fight against him was far from over.

Standing back on his feet and deactivating all of his weapons, Omega gazed at where Mephiles had previously been standing in silence.

At least, until the sound of a commotion most violent came to him.

Turning to the area behind where he was standing, he could see from the distance the body of an exposed changeling, recently charred by a chaos spear before falling lifeless onto the sand as Shadow stood over it. The others catching up behind him, exhausted and disheveled after having to tear their way through a horde of their own. However, with a figure like the ultimate lifeform it had been relatively easily to tear their way through.

The moment they saw Omega, there was relief on their faces.

“Omega!” Rouge exclaimed as her and Shadow were the first to approach the robot, “You survived!”

“Did you encounter Mephiles?” Shadow swiftly asked afterwards, to which he received a blunt answer:

“Affirmative” Omega said, “Though he was not terminated.”

“Of course he wasn’t.” Oliver muttered, having expected as such though still having held at least some hope.

At first, there was silence.

Omega could only muster himself to address Shadow, turning to him slowly and deducing it best to explain things to him first. Though he had a single vocal tone, it was clear that this was difficult for him to say with how many moments went on before he did so:

“Shadow” he said slowly as the hedgehog stood with arms crossed yet attentive, “The one who defeats and seals you in the future...is me.”

Shadow, in silent shock, lowered his arms down as he stared at Omega at a loss for words. He tried to say something, but found himself unable to do so. At the very least, Omega was there to elaborate on things best to his ability....

* * *

_ THE FUTURE…. _

Following the disaster that was the release of the prophesied ‘Flames of Disaster’, the world was in complete and utter turmoil.

Within a day, Soleanna was reduced to nothing but smoldering ruins. A destroyed city with canals of burning hot magma flowing beside and beneath what remained of it’s once scenic skyline and cultural landmarks. The rest of the world followed. The oceans were reduced to seas of hellish lava, cities were reduced to ruin as demonic creatures literally made of fire came to rule the streets, and every military tactic used against the giant beast causing it all resulted in complete and utter annihilation. The death toll was in the billions. There was a complete death of order - the economy crashed to a point where it was quite literally meaningless, governments and states across the globe collapsed like flies dropping to the ground after being swatted.

Even as the world fell apart around them however, those who were fortunate enough to survive the disaster clung to whatever they had left. 

Grouping together inside of a bunker hidden deep inside the bowels of a mountain, Omega was among the few major figures of G.U.N. and their affiliates that remained alive - and was present while Gretchen Goode herself presided over what was an emergency meeting regarding what the next plan of action was - she stood before a room packed with dozens surviving humans and anthros alike in addition to Omega, however none of them were figures of any significant importance or familiarity. 

Standing beside Gretchen Goode however was the queen of Bialya, one of the only major world leaders to have survived the immediate fallout of the flames’ release. She was a woman of slim and well-endowed body, graced with olive skin common with those of her descent, emerald green eyes and brunette hair that was long though pulled back by a golden diadem she wore upon her head, accompanied by two golden earrings styled like stingers. The golden armbands on her forearms compliment well the strapless mini-skirt dress she wore, her legs concealed by black leggings and custom tailored high heeled boots; over her shoulders was draped a translucent veil of pale gold, originating from a thick golden brace around her neck.

She stood by silently as Gretchen Goode with the raising of a single hand managed to quiet down the squabbling crowd in the room. Not even a single whisper could be heard as the old woman began speaking, all of those in the room paid her the utmost respect. 

“Now that we are all here, it is time to discuss our next plan of attack.”

“But ma’am-”

“Be silent” she sharply silenced her would be interrupted, her stare alone was enough to make the man gulp, “Now…” she refocused back on the crowd at large, “I know that this, Iblis shall we call it, has completely devastated our forces. G.U.N. has been utterly compromised, and with it so has the United Federation. Soleanna, the epicenter of the beast, has of course been the most devastated thus far. Now, we have learned the hard way that attacking Iblis head on is futile. Even if we get him to vanish, we do little more than serve as a minor nuisance to him. While we may not be able to get to him however, the chances are looking good at neutralizing a figure whom I have reason to believe played a role in the disaster.”

She then looked directly at Omega himself as a smirk seemed to form across her face - one that was practically ear to ear, as her brows curled downward in something of a maniacal fashion just before she uttered out:

“We are to focus on neutralizing Shadow the Hedgehog.”

* * *

_ THE PRESENT… _

The group listened in full attention as Omega recounted this story, explaining more behind what resulted in Shadow’s future self being somehow imprisoned at the hands of the very powerful he promised to protect. Everyone was silent even after Omega had finished, Shadow himself being at a loss for words. Barry, Wally and Oliver had nothing to say - they were just as perplexed as they had been before.

However, Rouge mustered the strength to speak up:

“It’s…, it’s just not fair!” she exclaimed, “Shadow’s always there to defend the world!” as she spoke, Shadow himself closed his eyes and turned his head away in silence, “Despite that…”

“Following the disaster that befalls the future” Omega explained, “It was determined that due to the power Shadow possesses, that he was a reasonable culprit for the trigger of the event. It was also determined that I was the only one capable of locating and stopping him. My programming at the time prevented me from declining the objective.”

At that point, Shadow began to silently walk away - though he only took a few steps before Rouge’s concerned voice spoke to him:

“Shadow…” she said, “Even if you think everyone in the world will be against you, know that I’ll always remain by your side. Remember that.”

Stopping for a bit, Shadow looked back and with a breath said in return:   
  
“I will…”

Before continuing to walk way while both Rouge and Omega stood, not really having anything to say and beginning to bow their heads towards the sands of the beach.

Though they looked at each other, neither Barry nor Oliver knew what to say in this situation. The only one who had the bravery with which to speak was Wally, who spoke directly to Omega while Shadow was still in earshot:

“Omega, can I ask how you knew Mephiles was here in the first place?”

“Commander Goode informed me of the sighting after I had finished my repairs” Omega explained, to which Wally added:

“And, in the apocalyptic future, she’s the one who leads the resistance and gives the order to have Shadow taken down, too?”

“That is also affirmative” Omega nodded. It was those questions and Omega’s answers to them that had Shadow stop his walking away and instead begin thinking over the situation more carefully.

_ Gretchen Goode… _

He thought about it hard.

From the moment he first encountered her, he had strong reasons to not trust her - the only reason he begrudgingly agreed to do so was due to his obligations to G.U.N. Not only had she been in charge of G.U.N. fifty years ago, but she also had been the one to give the tip regarding the archaeologists which led directly into an attempted Changeling ambush while evidently also directing Omega on an extremely dangerous lone encounter with Mephiles. Factoring in her involvement in the events of the future the group is trying to prevent, and Shadow was beginning to feel the pieces of Mephiles’ puzzle were beginning to fall into place.

_ Something is up with her….is she...working with Mephiles? _

_ I don’t know, but what is Mephiles’ plan? _

_ Could it involve that girl? The duchess of Soleanna?  _

Realizing that he was about to give in to what Mephiles wanted, Shadow couldn’t help but spend a few moments to think about what he had learned so far. He knew that Mephiles was first freed ten years ago as the result of an accident in Soleanna’s underwater research facility, and arguably more important that it involved a young girl who is currently the sovereign of Soleanna. 

At first he thought nothing of it when Silver brought her out of the castle and put her unconscious body to rest beside the tree, but looking back to it with the mindset of uncovering Mephiles’ plan he realized he never did actually witness  _ how _ Silver and Blaze handled their sealing of Iblis. The only thing they brought out with them was the young Elise.

Whom Eggman, who also seems interested in the Solaris project, is heavily interested in.

_ The Duchess….Eggman wants her, and he knows about the Solaris Project.... _

_ If my hunch about ‘Iblis’ is correct, then….we need to find where she is immediately. _

Suddenly these revelations became clear enough for him to take back his decision to walk away from the scene, looking back at the group he turned directly to Barry and Wally as he sternly said to them:

“Barry, Wally” he said to them as the lot of them perked up at hearing him speak, “Go find Sonic.  _ Now _ .”

Barry and Wally could tell by the tone of his voice that there was no time or patience given to any questions about it, and so the speedster duo simply nodded in compliance before becoming blurs in the wind as they sped off into the distance as fast they could. With them gone, Shadow looked to the other three with him as he was quick to continue on with his words:

“Omega, Rouge, Oliver, we’re returning to Kalinske. I want to have a talk with Commander Goode.”

Rouge, Omega and Oliver all nodded in agreement with Shadow’s plan of action and proceeded to promptly follow him as he began to walk in the direction of the beach’s exit.

* * *

Returning to the Kalinske was now done in an even more negative mood than it had been the previous time.

The moment that Shadow led the group onto the deck of the aircraft carrier after having made their way there from Wave Ocean, the first thing he did was walk up to the nearest ship personnel and ask in the firmest of tones:

“Where’s Commander Goode?”

Feeling more than intimidated by Shadow, the soldier responded with a clear stutter in his voice:

“U-Um, she’s i-in her office. Would like an esc-”

“No” Shadow very bluntly walked past the young man, “I know where it is.”

Walking towards the entrance to the ship’s interior, it was just as the door slid open that Shadow turned to the other three with him, saying to each of them:

“You three stay here, I want to speak with her alone.”

“Shadow…” Rouge spoke concernedly, with her concerns being elaborated on by Oliver:

“I know next to nothing about who this Goode lady is, but what if she pulls some tricks on you or something?”

“I can take care of myself” Shadow repeated, “But if, or when, something does go down, you three need to be as close as possible to leaving this ship. Now, trust me.”

Looking to each other and then back at Shadow, it was with a nod that Rouge replied softly:

“We do, Shadow.”

Without any further words, Shadow proceeded into the elevator and had one last look at his three teammates before he was taken into the ship’s interior for what he already suspected to be the final time. 

Goode’s office was not hard to find at all - it was located in the center of the ship’s interior and was also the largest of it’s cabins, the woman having taken it from the original captain of the ship. Though there was plenty of walking to be done given the sheer size of the ship, Shadow was already at the door to her room soon enough. Of course, the metallic door was initially locked when Shadow was face to face with it, glaring at it’s reflective surface with fists clenched. He looked at the side of it and saw that there was a keypad. Unclenching his left hand he reached out to ‘buzz’ the commander, though before his finger tip even touched a single button the door was already unlocked and opened. 

Taking the hint, Shadow promptly showed himself in; the door closed behind him.

The room was very much ‘presidential’ in it’s aesthetic, sporting the entrance office and through an archway the commander’s personal bed chambers. The walls were painted a rich red color, with there being a fancy ornate rug sprawled across the floor where the dark mahogany desk and two chairs sat. Behind the desk was a wall mounted 70 inch monitor screen, and besides an exuberant amount of paperwork there was a personal laptop computer - shut down and closed.

Of the commander herself, she sat in silence, faced away from Shadow in the black leather swivel chair placed at her desk. Without turning to face him the first thing she even said to him was in a tone trying to pass off as though she had not the faintest idea what was going on:

“Yes?”

Not letting it phase him, Shadow stated his business:

“Commander Goode, I’ve come to speak with you.”

Finally turning to face Shadow and look at him in the eyes, Gretchen still had upon her face a smirk that just stoked the fires of Shadow’s already peaked anger. She knew exactly what this was about, she was just purposely taking her time.

“About what?” she asked.

“You sent Omega to hunt down Mephiles alone?” Shadow questioned back in a now much more confrontational tone, “For what reason?!”

“Ha” she laughed, still portraying obliviousness in her voice, “Oh Shadow, have you forgotten that Mephiles is quite the threat? Besides, you and the others had already left for the desert at the time - there wasn’t anyone else to send after him.”

Shadow’s eyes leered at her, his suspicion not wavering for a second.

“You were the one who gave us the tip about the attack in the desert, which led us right into an ambush.”

Yet again, all Goode responded with was a nonchalant tone as she said:

“What exactly are you getting at, Shadow?”

With a deep breath and still unbroken glare, he said ever firmly:

“You were the one who ordered the raid on the ARK, aren’t you?”

There was a moment of silence after Shadow had uttered that question, Goode still glaring back at him with her face curled into a wrinkly smirk. She seemed to be chuckling to herself before giving the already angered Hedgehog the answer he asked for:

“What? Do you want me to say  _ ‘I’m sorry _ ’?”

That was more than enough.

With an enraged growl, by sheer instinct Shadow motioned to punch the woman directly in the face - however with sharp reflexes the woman grabbed his fist with a single hand. There was even a shockwave from the impact of his fist slamming into her palm, but she was shockingly strong enough to actually stop his attack in its tracks - and didn’t give him enough time to even process this before sending him with a single push slamming his back into the door. Not enough force to break it just yet, but more than enough to make a significant dent.

She stood up and approached the Hedgehog as he quickly stood himself back up, looking up at her with his leering glare still on full display. He had never expected such strength from a human, let alone an elderly human woman. Though, then again:

“What...what are you?”

Sinisterly chuckling, Goode found amusement in his question and responded accordingly:

“Oh, Shadow...you have no idea what I am.”

With a single swing of her fist she was capable of sending Shadow to the floor, something which alone was a testament to her strength. Looking down onto him, she menacingly said:

“I think it’s time Granny Goodness reminds you what obedience is. With  _ discipline _ .”

Motioning to stomp her foot down onto his neck, Granny Goodness would have been unstoppable by any other being, however Shadow had enough strength to not only grab at her feet with his hands but also sweep his legs with enough force to knock her to the ground, allowing him to turn the tables and get on top of her, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt. Though of course she grabbed his fist before he could land a punch to her face.

Even as he glared her down with intent to show no mercy, she remained smirking.

“I’ll admit” Goodness remarked, “I’m impressed. I’m glad to see that I rooted out most of the weakness that Gerald wanted to instill in you.”

The moment she spoke of his creator, even invoking him at all, gave Shadow enough fury and strength to finish his punch, though Granny still shifted her head to evade it, because getting up like that of a wrestler and swiftly pinning Shadow to the ground - with more than enough force to shake the floor of the cabin. With Shadow’s small size however, he was able to break her old by spinning into his ball form. Sent back to her feet she was quickly pummeled by a direct hit from Shadow’s spinning form to her chest - this time with more than enough force to send her back towards the wall, smashing the monitor as well as the wall itself, causing her to land on the tiled floor of her cabin’s bathroom.

She didn’t have time to recover either, for Shadow came rushing back right at her - though she had enough reflexes to grab hold of him and toss him directly for the wall mirror - which he too fell directly through both it and it’s glass as well as through the wall itself - though he was able to stop himself and land on his feet with little more than a slide across the floor of the outside hall before he and Granny ended up clashing in mid-air after pouncing on one another.

Shadow managed to yet again overpower Granny and send her back into her office, using the boosters on the bottom of his shoes to shover her right through the door to her office before slamming her head against the wall of the opposite room - hard enough to create a dent in it, as he hissed with flaming fury:

“How  _ dare  _ you speak about the professor after what you ordered.”

Yet again, Granny couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Oh come now, we both know it’s not my use of  _ his  _ name that’s gotten you so angry.”

Widening his eyes, Shadow yet again slammed her head against the wall - this time hard enough to create a hole directly into the meeting room that was behind it. Even though she certainly had signs of battle on herself she still laughed and spoked with more than enough energy to carry on:

“Such fury, such raw power. A true warrior of Apokolips.”

Shadow made the grave mistake of letting his guard down, being caught off guard by her words.

“W-w-what?”

Noticing this and being one to take advantage of this, Granny grinned sadistically before headbutting him square in the face - Shadow fell to the ground with both a thrud as well as a grunt. 

“So I suppose nobody had told you the complete truth behind your origins” Granny said, making Shadow look up at her with a glare still on his face, “Or perhaps your memory still needs more discipline too.”

She then smacked him across the face with a single hand, sending back to the ground.

However, she quickly got out of the way before she could slam her foot down onto him, and unleashed a chaos spear right to her chest, the first change he had. It was enough to send her back to the edge of the hallway, where the two combatants yet again had a moment to catch their breaths in a lull period of their confrontation.

“What…” Shadow said, not removing eye contact with her for a second, “What are you saying?”

Smirking, Granny Goodness was blunt with it:

“I’m saying you’re a New God, Shadow. You are a son of Apokolips.”

“What are you talking about?” Shadow stood his ground and started with a voice as clear as crystal, “I’m the ultimate lifeform, created by Professor Gerald Robotnik.”

“Using the DNA of Black Doom” Goodness remarked, something which made Shadow twitch in anger, knowing she brought it up just to press his buttons.

“What is your point?”

“Oh, how adorable” Granny mocked, “You think Black Doom wasn’t planned from the beginning” with a laugh she continued, “We needed Black Doom’s DNA because it was the only viable source of proper Apokoliptian blood, as he was after all a shadow of the past, so to speak. There were some of us who thought of destroying him after he served his purpose, though I personally didn’t see the point; needless to say, after his failed invasion that discussion is quite hilarious in hindsight.”

Gritting his teeth in an angry growl, Shadow still leered at the woman.

If what she was telling him were true, there was more to his past that he still has not uncovered. He had no idea what she was talking about with him being a ‘New God’, though based on what he was hearing, he felt confident now more than ever as he said:

“So, you  _ are  _ working with Mephiles.”

“I work for my God.” - the nonchalant smirk on her face said all that Shadow needed to know. It was a flat out  _ yes _ no matter what way he looked at it.

“Well” Shadow remarked back, clenching his fists as he prepared his next move - “Consider me your devil.”

Yet again the two of them charged at each other, though this time his fists were ignited with flashing chaos energy just as his eyes were all but ignited with fire. Once they were close enough to each other once again, Shadow attacked first by blocking Granny’s punch with one of his elbows, and with the other hand delivering to her a chaos energy uppercut that was more than enough to yet again sender her to the floor - though it was followed up with him blasting her with a sharp blast from the other hand.

With it being enough to kill any normal person, Shadow had expected her to have been dealt with and began walking away after his final blow had been dealt - though once the smoke and dust cleared from where they had been battling he was caught off guard by the hundreds of G.U.N. soldiers now within the hallway - all of their assault rifles primed and aimed directly at him.

Though caught off guard by this, he quickly readied his battle stance, unafraid of mere human soldiers. Though it was at that moment that he heard the sound of Granny Goodness coughing in between laughing as she got up and back onto her feet. With a grin she remarked:

“Such little respect for your elders, Shadow” she said, “Not to worry though, soon you’ll be among my most obedient graduates.”

“Hmph” Shadow scoffed at her words, “I take orders from no one, especially the likes of you.”

“Well, we’ll be seeing about that now won’t we?”

Shadow snarled at her after she said that, at this point he was reaching his breaking point. The temptation to remove his inhibitor rings which kept his power in check was extremely strong - and he could practically feel the red aura of sheer rage coursing all around him. Regardless of what he was about to do, all hell was about to break loose. 

Though that was when a noise from the deck of the ship provided a distraction.

A loud, booming rumble - rattling the entire ship as though an earthquake was happening all throughout it.

It was not the only of it’s kind either. Though the soldiers remained aiming their guns at Shadow, both the hedgehog and granny looked up at the ceiling of the hall as it shook, the lights above them even flickering with each rumble. Goodness was quick to use this as an opportunity to further toy with Shadow:

“Well, it appears my furies have encountered your so-called ‘ _ friends _ ’.” she said, even though the news only flared up Shadow’s rage even further, “It appears this is the point at which you choose what you’re going to do next.”

_ Yes. _

_ It is. _

* * *

On the deck of the ship, hell had already broken loose.

Several of the jet planes that had been stationed were already left in broken smithereens across the length of the ship - towers of flame and smoke billowing into the skies as only even more explosions continued to lay waste to everything - sending aircraft and robotic soldier parts spiraling in all directions virtually by the second. All while active robots as well as flocks of jets and attack helicopters flew overhead, firing streams of bullets and missiles in the direction of what was perceived as a ‘threat’. It had not been that long since Shadow had left his companions in the area, and already it had turned into a complete war zone as G.U.N. 's forces revealed their allegiance to Granny Goodness and began assaulting them.

It would have been thought that the laser blasts from one of the robotic sentries or missiles from the jets or helicopters would have been more than enough to kill the group - though Omega had impressive defensive abilities and both Oliver and Rouge had more than enough reflexes to out maneuver any attempt to destroy them so swiftly.

However, the standard military units were never actually intended to be the primary killing force. Merely support.

That was where the Furies came in.

They seemed to arrive out of nowhere on the deck of the ship, and very quickly turned the conflict from a mere endurance game into a more proper battle. 

Big Barda, Gilotina, Lashina, Mad Harriet and Stompa had all been eager to have a rematch with Rouge and Omega, with Big Barda even remarking “There’s no water monster to save you this time!” as she charged at Rouge with her sword brandished. Rouge managed to evade her weapon by flying into the air, though Lashina’s whip managed to reach well into the air and smacked her directly in the face - drawing blood as well as knocking the bat right back down onto the ship where she groaned and struggled to stand up as the two approached her.

At least until Lashina herself was sent to the ground via a direct hit from a missile fired from Omega’s arms, him having just pushed Stompa off of himself. He was soon trading blows with Big Barda after she charged at him - her sword deflecting many of Omega’s bullet streams and her skin being impervious to them anyway. However he was more than strong enough for his metallic hands to grab hold of her sword once she was in close range as his other turned into a flamethrower that set fire to her, though she remained near unharmed as she put a foot to his robotic chest and kicked him away - albeit he discharged several locked-on energy shots at her just before he promptly stood back up.

They of course did not do any long lasting damage to her, though they did keep her fixated on him.

Oliver meanwhile was having to alternate between Mad Harriet and Gilotina, using his arrows to attempt in keeping them at a distance and his bow itself whenever they got too close for comfort, but due to the fact he was a mere human utilizing weapons there was little he could do besides play a repeated hit-and-run game with them - doing his best to keep his distance and fire his arrows at them while using the cover of the smoke and fire around them whenever he was spotted and charged at.

Of course, his arrows proved to be little beyond a nuisance for them; it didn’t precisely take very long for them to manage subduing him.

Right after leaping through a cloud of fiery smoke, he prepared to aim his bow at a pouncing Mad Harriet who had followed him, and though he did succeed in firing an explosive arrow right at his face and sent her backwards, he left himself open to getting kneed in the stomach by Gilotina, who proceeded to grab him by the back of his hood just to knee him in the gut a second time before letting him fall to the ground.

He coughed up a bit of blood from her impacts, trying to get up but forced back onto his back by her foot the moment he did. His bow was slapped away the moment he even tried to use it. Considering there was that wall of smoke and fire behind her as she sadistically looked down onto him, he couldn’t help but at least offer what was potentially one last remark for him to go out on:

“For some reason, this is sort of how I always pictured myself goin’ down…”

“Oh, good for you then.” Gilotina replied back, already beginning to sink her heel harder onto his chest as a grinning Mad Harriet approached from behind to watch.

She would have surely crushed Oliver’s chest had it not been for a certain Stompa flying directly into her - colliding with her and sending the two of them sliding across the deck of the ship.

Of course, this was not an intentional move.

Oliver and Mad Harriet turned to see Shadow the Hedgehog standing before them - a raging red aura coursing across this body as his position gave well away that he had mustered the strength to actually send Stompa on her collision course. To say that the sight of Shadow was a relief to Oliver would be quite the understatement:

“Looks like the cavalry's here!” he exclaimed, using the distraction to reach for his bow as Mad Harriet couldn’t resist charging at Shadow with all of her speed and might.

Shadow meanwhile, didn’t move a single muscle.

The moment she was close enough he grabbed both of her clawed hands and headbutted her square in the face - hard enough to generate a shockwave from the impact alone. As she grunted and fell to the ground he then proceeded to grab one of her legs and flip her to the other side - getting a steep dent in the deck’s metallic floor before he then tossed her with surprising ease into the bottom floor of the ship’s control tower - she breached right through the wall at such a velocity and was knocked out cold by the time the dust had cleared.

By that point though, Gilotina and Stompa had recovered - getting back onto their feet the two glared at Shadow. There was something about the fact it was him that seemed to keep the two of them silent - perhaps it was something related to what Granny Goodness had said of him earlier. It wasn’t fear, Shadow could tell that right away; it was more of them being visibly intimidated by him, or perhaps even trying to decide which of them wanted to take the credit of slaying him.

Ultimately it was Stompa who made the first move.

She charged at Shadow and leaped into the air once he unleashed a chaos spear upon her. However Shadow chaos controlled without saying a word, teleporting himself directly up to her so that he could clasp his two hands together into a single fist that plowed directly onto her back - slamming her swiftly back down to the ground of the ship. It was hard of enough of a fall that she actually fell directly through the floor itself - causing a series of ear piercingly loud sounds, primarily of metal crunching, cracking and breaking.

Watching as Shadow then chaos controlled again and teleported out of her view, Gilotina held her spear and dagger tightly; yet again showing that she seemed to know the devil was dealing with.

Yet in the mood he was in, Shadow was not precisely easy to handle.

With him appearing behind her, Gilotina swiftly turned to face him with a growling shout - her spear managed to scrape his torso though he grabbed her dagger with a hand before she could get it to pierce his face.

In this position, the two struggled for quite a bit of time. Glaring each other down, with Gilotina doing her hardest to get her blades to pierce Shadow’s skin, while Shadow clenched tightly down. Both of their feet scraping against the metal floor of the deck, the high pitched scratching sound being unmistakable. 

Their struggle could very well have gone on for hours, had it not been for Shadow unleashing from himself a pulsating blast of chaos energy that dispensed his red aura though also sent Gilotina spiraling fast into the top floor of the command tower - before then causing the entire tower to erupt into a booming fiery inferno of an explosion, turning from a tower of metal into one of flame. Though Gilotina and Mad Harriet had been in the blast, their New God physiology had allowed them to live, though they had to first unseat the rubble and debris now burying them. This gave the others time to wrap up their own fighting, though they also now had the added obstacle of evading the debris falling from the tower’s destruction.

With the others, Oliver was using repeated strikes from his arrows as a way to get Big Barda distracted with himself to allow Omega to assist Rouge, who was struggling against Lashina’s bladed whips. She was managing to dodge them effectively and retaliate with her martial arts prowess, but the New God woman just hit so much harder than she did that it was visibly resulting in Rouge having more battle bruises, cuts across her arms and legs, and blood from her mouth than what Lashina had in comparison.

However, the tide changed when Omega essentially tag teamed when Omega charged into her at full speed - slamming into her back with his elbow and bringing her to the ground. Lashina with a growl tried to send her weapon into the robot’s head, though Omega was able to uppercut it into the air and use a machine gun blast from unveiling the guns inside of his arms to destroy it with rapid fire while a shot of Oliver’s electric arrow managed to incapacitate him. While Rouge and Omega both looked over in his direction, Oliver just remarked:

“What? Didn’t want you guys to have  _ all _ the credit.”

“Well” Rouge replied between deep repeated breathes, “I think that’s all of them.”

“Incorrect” Omega said back, “There is still one still in play.”

He was right of course, for a good distance away from them - Shadow and Big Barda were having their own stand-off. Barda held her sword in her arm firmly, while Shadow prepared a stance with fists clenched and held in a battle stance fit for a karate fight. Both of them locked their eyes onto the other, not removing their eye contact from one another for a second as they moved in a slow circle, preparing to see who would decide to throw the first blow.

Neither of them showed fear, and neither of them seemed intimidated by the other.

Barda even made it clear:

“Your status as ultimate lifeform doesn’t matter to me” she said, “It only means I shall get the glory of being your slayer.”

“Hmph” Shadow scoffed, “Or it will be me who will be your slayer.”

“We’ll be seeing about that shortly.”

“Yes, we will.”

With that exchange, the two finally charged at one another - leaping into the air, Shadow igniting his fists with chaos energy and Barda aiming her blade for her opponent’s heart. Their eye contact still unbroken as they approached one another at rapid pace.

Their battle would have perhaps been legendary, had they been allowed to actually go through with it.

Just before they could have made contact with each other, there was a bellowing roar from the interior of the ship as it yet again shook, mere seconds before a flaming explosion erupted right in between the two with more than enough force to send the two flying back onto the deck floor and onto their backs. It only took a few seconds for them to sit up and witness even more explosions erupting across the ship as it continued to shake and rumble as though an earthquake was striking it - considering the alarms were now sounding off throughout the entire length of the ship with lifeboats already deploying to the waters below to evacuate as many personnel as possible, it was obvious what was happening.

However, neither of them cared. They were more than ready to pounce onto each other and battle anyway, though something seemed to ring in Barda’s ear before she could do so - something which without any further spoken dialouge, prompted her to accept having to battle Shadow at a different time.

With Shadow being delayed by another shaking of the ship as it began it’s process of sinking and was already about to split in half with a thunderous roar as it’s two halves began lifting upwards as they violently ripped from each other, Barda took this moment to open what appeared to be a portal from an box shaped device she held out - and wasted no time in jumping through it.

Shadow was about to follow her before gravity betrayed him, though when he overheard the scream of a certain archer as he was plummeting towards him, he made sure to grab Oliver first.

“Ah! Phew…” Oliver was well beyond relieved, looking at the fact he was about to plump what was quite possible a few miles down to the ocean below, “Thanks man, I’m pretty sure I owe you now.”

Using his shoes to levitate in the air while holding Oliver with one hand, Shadow turned to see Rouge and Omega were also deploying their own flight abilities and racing towards them as the ship collapsed around them. Relieved that they two were okay, Shadow then turned his attention to the boom tube before him, and took note that it was beginning to close. Not wanting to let them or their master get away so easily, Shadow shouted at the top of his lungs:

“FOLLOW ME!”

And so he tossed Oliver into the boom tube first, much to the man’s shock, before leaping in after him with Rouge and Omega managing to follow suit mere seconds before it closed behind them.

_ You’re not getting away from me this time, Mephiles! _

_ I’m going to find out what you’re up to, and I’m putting an end to it! _

* * *

_ BIALYA.... _

Emerging from the boom tube at the last possible moment, the group found themselves in what appeared at first to be a very familiar area. At least for Shadow, Rouge and Omega, In Oliver’s case, he landed face first in hot desert sand and had to look up in order to see the return of a wide open desert landscape; though this time they were on the vantage point of the ledge of a plateau overlooking what was a massive river that was at least a mile wide and thousands of miles long as it slithered well behind the horizon. It also provided a break from what was otherwise nothing but a sea of sand heated up by ocean in that the direct proximity of it’s flowing blue water was the green slices of healthy vegetation that made up it’s floodplains. Palm trees, ferns, grass, papyrus and fields of desert wetland for miles on end; all huddled around the mighty river for life.

Joined of course, by civilization.

In the center of their view was a city on the edge of the river’s mouth, where the greater river split into a series of smaller rivers forging a large delta of floodplain as they made their way towards whatever sea or ocean rested beyond the shore so many miles away.

The city itself was just as grand as the river that divided it into east and west; it was a beautiful modern metropolis with structures that ranged from low lying homes and apartments to impressive skyscrapers and towers that soared well into the sky; all of it’s expanse baked well in the light of the sun beating down onto it, and all of it densely packed as to hug the river and make use of all the inhabitable land the desert allotted it’s people. There was even a complex of several pyramids, cascading in size from a large one followed by several smaller ones, all situated on the very western edge of the city. In the center of it all was a palace, constructed at the very beginning of the river delta itself - with several drawbridges used to allow entry to it’s grounds. The palace itself was so large and magnificent that it absolutely dominated and commanded the respect of it’s skyline. 

The palace itself was surrounded by high walls, with a single main gate granting entrance should one get past the bridges. A small area on the wall was outfitted for the Royalty or Important people to make speeches and announcements to the people of Bialya. The palace itself is mostly polished white in color, with golden domed roofs, curving in the shape of tear drops with the same shape being used for the spires that extended into the sky for added beauty.. There are multiple towers of varying sizes. Inside, there are various rooms that are used by the ones staying inside of it. Outside, in the area between the walls and the building itself, is a large and magnificent garden courtyard, as well as a fountain of crystal clear water in the center.

The sight of it all was truly something for all of them to take in, though gazing at all Oliver couldn’t help but remark:

“Did, did we just fall through a portal straight to Egypt?”

“Nope” Rouge answered, scanning the area with her eyes as she explained to the archer “We’re in Bialya now. Specifically the capital city.”

“Okay…” Oliver was still adjusting to all this timeline had to offer, “And, where did our ‘friends’ go, then?”

“My sensors indicate that there are approximately two chaos emeralds located within the Bialyan royal palace” Omega suddenly interrupted, fixing his head directly towards the palace itself, “In addition to readings identical to those of both Mephiles and Commander Goode.”

“Well then” Shadow replied, crossing his arms and looking at the palace himself, “It appears we have our destination.”

“Breaking into the Bialyan royal palace?” Rouge remarked, “I’m about to go down in treasure hunter history with this one! I wonder what Mephiles is doing here, though? And with two chaos emeralds?”

Shadow, though mostly speculating on his part, offered something of an explanation:

“I’m guessing he needs them to rejoin with Iblis.”

Walking ahead of the others while still fixated on the palace, Omega pumped an arm like that of a shotgun as he said as threateningly determined he could:

“I will seal him before that.”

With Omega more than ready as it was, the rest of the group exchanged silent nods to each other before they set off towards the Bialyan palace - all of them knowing well that this was more than likely going to be the endgame of their adventure.

Even so, the words that Granny Goodness had said ached throughout Shadow’s mind as he lead his team down the slope of the plateau and towards the city:

_ New God… _

_ Son of Apokolips… _

_ Black Doom possessed ‘viable’ Apokoloptian blood? _

_ What exactly was Black Doom? _

_ What exactly am I? _

He then let out a deep breathe, reasoning:

_ Guess I’ll find out soon…. _


	13. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow, Rouge, Omega & Oliver travel into the heart of the catacomb complex beneath the Bialyan royal palace while Mephiles and his elite meet with one another; seeking to find a conclusion, instead they unwittingly trigger a new beginning.

_ BIALYAN ROYAL PALACE, THRONE ROOM _

The throne room of the Bialyan royal palace was a magnificent sight to behold: the polished vinyl flooring not only glistened but also reflected all that it could see, which included the circle of ornate columns that supported the ceiling so far above; made of polished marble the columns themselves had carvings of palm leaves across their bottoms above rings of bronze, with carvings of more flowering plant designs extending up their length in a most beautiful fashion until reaching the top. Between each of the columns themselves were unique golden-bronze ceiling decorations: collections of honeycomb blocks that bridged the gap between each of the pillars - and even went further beyond as they coated the inner wall of the tear drop dome that was the ceiling for the very center of the throne room, illuminating the entire room in their shade of gold and bronze, almost akin to a most gorgeous sunset. This same honeycomb shape was repeated throughout the palace - all of the windows had them in the center, as did the center of the throne room floor in regards to a particularly large engraving of glistening metallic gold.

In the far side of the room, elevated above a small set of marble steps as if to command respect to whomever sat upon it, was the throne itself. It was a tall, luxurious chair made almost entirely of gold with ebony colored cushioning on both the seat and the back and head rests for true royal comfort. Besides the chair itself were two large, life-sized statues of gods - both sporting a humanoid body though the head of a hedgehog, constructed out of black onyx with their ancient style being made out of ruby, gold, bronze and even copper. Their arms were both crossed with hands touching each shoulder, their faces looking downward in the same direction the throne faced as if looking down upon whomever stood before the monarch.

Speaking of which, there was the woman of the hour herself. Sitting upon the throne was the Queen of Bialya herself.

A woman well endowed with beauty as well as a slim waistline, her rich olive skin was well complimented by emerald colored eyes and long, flowing brown hair. The golden diadem worn at her forehead and the stinger earrings hanging from her ears glistened whenever the light reflected off of them; the dress she now wore, made of the finest silk, featured a long though form fitting skirt of gold that extended to her feet that were also dressed well in impressive heeled shoes. The top half of her dress was black, cut in a manner which revealed the beginning of her voluptuous cleavage though left the rest up to imagination - including much of her arms as the dark sleeves extended tightly up to her wrists; there also was an extension of black silk that ran down the back of her dress, similar in function to a waist-mounted cape though it was stitched as part of the dress. Extending from two ring bands on either of her shoulders were long, whip-like strips of silk, golden yellow in color, that were long enough to extend to the floor let alone be handled - almost serving as a more ‘practical’ form of having a cape. 

She even held one of these ‘tendrils’ in her hand and twirled around as she smirked, holding a certain red chaos emerald in her hand as her eyes looked directly at it; the yellow one being firmly within her lap, right up against the metal belt where the scabbard for her katana blade was kept. She seemed to either revelling in their beauty, or the fact the two gemstones forwarded her ambitions - the latter being far more likely.

Her moment was interrupted soon however, as her focus was taken to the opening of several boom tubes within her throne room. Watching them attentively, her smirk became only more sinister as she saw the likes of Gilotina, Stompa, Lashina, Mad Harriet and finally Granny Goodness walk out of them. 

However, Granny Goodness was no longer under any facade of being a mere human anymore. She was now revealing her true appearance - full Apokoliptian armor, dark blue mixed with black beneath a thick golden breastplate sporting a long red cape attached, with a plated armor skirt to go along with it and provide extra defense to her lower body besides the also plated bodysuit beneath; even her combat boots were essentially advanced, durable armor. Her allegiance was further reiterated by the piece of black armor running across her chin and the side of her face, connecting via her forehead with a red omega symbol right in the center. This removed any remaining questions regarding who or what she precisely was, and was even commented on by the Bialyan queen upon her taking notice of it:

“I see that someone decided to set aside their costume” she said, smirk still on her face; it was actually returned by Goodness as she admitted:

“That suit  _ was _ getting rather old” she then however directed attention back to the Queen, “Though I also see you’re still quite comfortable with yours.”

“Ha” the Queen remarked, “Touche.”

“So” Goodness said, her tone already showing she was getting immediately down to business as the Furies remind behind her, “Is everything prepared for the summit?”

“Almost” the queen answered, “My darlings have delivered their end of the bargain” she was of course referring to the red and yellow emeralds within her possession, “Though we’re still awaiting on the lord of the reach’s ‘elite scout’ to do the same.”

“I see” Goodness nodded, placing her hands together behind her back, “Well I imagine we’ll have it taken care of shortly.”

“Indeed we should” the Queen replied, “His Eminence explained to me the mission should be finished within the hour from our perception, barring any unexpected delays.”

“Mhm”

Just then, the two’s attention was drawn to the sound and light of another boom tube opening up within the room - though this one was not Big Barda’s, but rather one used by a completely different figure. He was a young man encased entirely in blue-black metallic armor, with the blue concentrated around his eyes, the back of his head, his chest sans a crooked line of black, and around his feet while black was the primary color for the rest of his full body suit - though the most prominent feature was the scarab shaped attachment effectively fused to his back complete with two long curved pincer-like appendages that extended over his head and shoulders. There were large wings he could extend from his scarab as well, though Blue Beetle had no use for them at the moment as he had just finished his landing.

However, there was something off about Blue Beetle as he joined Goodness, the Queen and the Furies in the throne room - his voice. His voice was once that of a normal human male,though now he spoke with a heavily metallic tone. As though he was no longer organic at all, but rather synthetic:

“Objective complete” were his monotone words, his mouth no longer visible as it seemed to now be completely covered up by the black of his armor, as he revealed in his hands two more chaos emeralds - in his chaos the white and turquoise emeralds. With the boom tube behind him closing, there wasn’t any clue as to where - or when, perhaps - he retrieved them.

Granny Goodness and the Bialyan Queen, looking at the glowing gems in his hands, had looked pleased with his work before looking at each other and nodding. With the Queen taking both of her emeralds in her hands and standing up from her throne, descending down the steps to begin walking beside Goodness as the two women began walking the halls of the palace on their way to this mysterious ‘summit’. The Furies, Blue Beetle, and a battalion of Bialyan royal guardsmen followed after them. Among the guards was one figure in particular, a young and masculine figure dressed in a leather jacket and pants with a belt holding multiple weapons rather than just a mere assault rifle - though the most prominent features of him were the armored shirt he wore beneath his jacket and a metal helmet that covered his head. Though he was enthralled and thus having a grayscale coloration marking his possession, the unmistakable bat symbol could still be seen on his chest.

Though not a word was said by him personally, it was silently known by the rest of those he walked with who he was prior to his enthrallment.

Speaking of which:

Walking down the ornately decorated, golden halls of the palace, the Queen of Bialya and Granny Goodness enjoyed some banter with each other. It wasn’t precisely a ‘friendly’ chat, though more of a casual discussion between co-workers more than anything.

“So” the Queen started, “I see you are missing one Fury. May I ask what happened to Barda?”

“Oh, she was too close to our young rebel to risk boom tubing directly inside” Goodness explained, “She should be meeting us at the summit, unless of course something comes up.” 

The manner in which Granny Goodness said that didn’t convey much genuine care for if something happened to her subordinate, nor did it worry any of the other Furies. In fact, Gilotina seemed to smirk at the concept, knowing she would most likely take her teammate’s place.

“Yes, that is a very practical decision” the Queen responded, “Besides, I just had the floors polished a few hours ago, would be a great nuisance to my darlings if they had to do it all again so soon.”

“Indeed” and with that said, Goodness had a decent subject to switch things over to, “Speaking of your ‘darlings’, how are things looking?”

“They are going fabulously well” the Queen answered with a proud smile, “His Eminence is very proud of how large the swarm has become, when the time comes they shall be more than ready to ensure his will be done across the world.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

“Indeed” the Queen nodded, “There’s nothing quite like watching a full Changeling swarm lay waste to one’s enemies; draining them of all their frivolous emotions; as well as their very own form, reducing them to little more than food.”

“Yes” Granny seemed to sigh of pleasure at that, as if remembering something she was rather fond of, “I’ll admit I did not think much of them at first, I had thought the Paradooms were our peak, but watching the Changelings in action while at their proper strength left me rather impressed.”

“I could tell” the Queen said with her smirk still ever proudly across her face, “I know that they simply can’t wait for the next part of His Eminence’s grand plan to commence.”

“That is a sentiment we all share.”

* * *

_ UNDERGROUND.... _

A single blast of a well timed RPG launcher - courtesy of Omega, was more than enough to grant the team access to the network of Bialya’s vast underground caverns. Rouge was the first of the group to drop, followed by Oliver, Shadow and then finally Omega - all of them landing their feet down on what was a large cylinder structure made of ancient sandstone, slithering and winding almost impossibly through the center of a large, dark cavern of rock and earth. The only illumination being scattered collections of glowing green crystals, which were reflected in the river of groundwater beneath what could best be described as an ancient pipe of stone.

The sound of the water was not the only sound within this chamber however, as in the distance could be heard the buzzing of wings, banshee-esque screeches, and ferocious hisses. The group was more than acquainted with the creatures that made these sounds at this point, and hearing these horrifying sounds were enough to make the group start moving as soon as they made absolutely sure their feet were on solid ground.

Looking around as they traversed this massive cavern, Oliver couldn’t help but remark:

“Okay, so I  _ think _ I’ve gotten used to the fact that this...timeline...isn’t quite what I remember at all, but this seems a little much for the underground of a city. Like, ya know, I’m not used to sewer systems being this fancy.”

“I don’t think this is a sewer system” Shadow replied.

“What” Oliver snarked, “Do Bialyans not shit?”

“Hm” Shadow just grunted in response, Oliver remarking back:

“Tough crowd....”

“So!” Rouge said to break the awkward silence, “You’re from the same timeline as Barry?”

“Evidently yes” Oliver replied, “Though I can’t say I know as much as he does, evidently I missed out on quite a lot.”

“So I’ve heard” Rouge said back, “From what he’s told us you basically cheated death by winding up here, sounds like the last one had quite the downer ending.”

“Based on what I can gather, this one’s not looking forward to sunshine and lollipops neither.”

“Fair point.”

“But that’s what we’re here to prevent.” Shadow was swift to interject with that, which of course was very much the truth.

Their race down this strange cavern eventually came to a quick enough end, leading to the group finding themselves in what seemed to be the chamber of an ancient temple of sorts - the walls and floors being entirely made of aged sandstone, with an ornate carving of what appeared to be a massive bee or hornet in the center of the square room; the walls were lined by tall columns supporting it against what was above it, and it was along these same stone walls that candles were placed, lighting the room and the halls extending from it with a warm yet lonesome orange-red hue as well as filling it with the sound of their flames softly crackling.

On one side of the chamber was a dead end wall with two statues of that mysterious hedgehog figure on either far side of it, with a small sandstone altar in the middle that seemed to currently be empty though very likely was intended for some type of religious use. More important though was what was on the other side, which seemed to also be a dead end though in fact had a significant portion of wall colored of a darker shade of stone than the rest - alongside sporting in it’s center yet another engraving of what appeared to be a large bee-like insect in the middle of a honeycomb shape.

Looking around however, it wasn’t difficult for the group to jump to what appeared to be the natural conclusion: with Oliver himself being the first to remark:

“Dammit!” he said, “All this way just to get stopped by a dead end. What do we do now? Try our luck up top?”

Rouge however, wasn’t convinced. Thanks to being a bat, she was able to hear that the so-called ‘darker’ wall wasn’t what it appeared to be, and just to make sure she walked herself up close to it and pressed one of her ears against it. She could definitely hear the faint sound of things such as an indoor breeze as well as the crackling of candle lights from the other side - denoting that this ‘wall’ was rather hollow compared to the walls with nothing but earth behind them. She also could hear from an even greater distance more of those buzzing and screeching noises, though could tell very well that this still was the only way to proceed. As such she was swift to turn to the others:

“Don’t worry, it’s not over yet!” she pointed to the stone door, “I’m pretty sure this here is a door, not a wall.”

“Well that’s great” Oliver responded skeptically, “Though I don’t see any keyholes and I’m pretty sure they’re not just gonna open it for us.”

“Luckily, that’s no problem for us!” and with a nod, Rouge immediately turned to none other than Omega, “Omega?”

As if understanding the plan perfectly, Omega silently approached the stone door - with a single blast of a rocket from an arm cannon of his it burst open like a melon slammed with a hammer. As the rubble and debris found it’s way scattered across the ground, the team silently pressed on through it before the dust had even cleared; Oliver couldn’t help but be left speechless for a moment, unsure of why he didn’t even consider that as an option.

Once the dust cleared, the four were introduced to the sight of the next chamber of the underground: an elongated, the walls and ceiling constructed out of sandstone while the floor was buried under several feet of desert sand. There was a stone-constructed catwalk across the walls, as well as stone stands holding up even more statues of the hedgehog headed ‘god’ decorating the floor, though what was more important to the group was the stone door on the opposite end of the room situated on a high-up ledge just as the one they were standing on. They could tell that due to the passage of time, any stairs or walkways connecting these various stone constructed paths of the chamber were either buried beneath sand or simply crumbled to dust - none of these pathways were properly connected.

However that didn’t stop the group, for Shadow, Rouge and Omega easily jumped from their ledge up to one of the catwalks extending the side of the wall - though Oliver had to take the floor due to his being merely a human.

Though this room was seemingly unoccupied, Shadow couldn’t help but take notice of the imagery within it.

For one, the hedgehog headed god appeared to look like either himself or super sonic, as it sported signature curved quills along the back of it’s head. However, it’s lack of a carved mouth very well told who it was actually intending to represent. Shadow couldn’t help but silently glare at these statues as he passed them by, them serving as a reminder of why he was here.

This didn’t stop with the foursome of floor statues either. The artwork etched deeply onto the walls portrayed a scene most curious - as well as perhaps terrifying.

It was a depiction of what appeared to be the same enormous phoenix bird, it’s wings sprawled across the walls and virtually reaching either end of it as it’s head peered down towards what was beneath it: a flock of people both human and anthro all bowing on all fours, looking at their overlord with reverence as it clutched within its talons an entire planet, a recreation of the earth though once more encased in the same flame surrounding it’s master. On either side of this incredibly large image were multiple tall figures also carved into the wall; towering over the bowing subjects were figures that could best be described as the rest of the wicked pantheon.

One figure was unmistakable to Shadow - that of Granny Goodness, albeit now in her true appearance rather than her prior disguise. Though it was stylized and withered, he could tell clearly by the way the figure was drawn, the hairstyle used and simply by common sense. The rest were a mystery to him however, though a feminine figure right beside her held a strong resemblance to the Bialyan queen. The two next to her however were unknown, two masculine figures both designed with armor - due to the withering of stone there were no apparent colors besides that of the stone, though one of them resembled almost a caveman in appearance - sporting pointed ears, visible fanged teeth, and having both long hair and a full facial beard as well as a neanderthal-like muscular though also somewhat hunched and portly build. The figure next to him was taller, and yet again though the color had eroded it could clearly be seen that he at least sported long light hair tapering down from the back of his head. Then to that figure’s left was what appeared to be another hedgehog figure, though this one was not quite the same as the other - the quills were straightened to a completely jagged degree and the entire body seemed to be made up of armor, with the addition of sporting two pincer like extensions sprouting from the back of it’s shoulders akin to that of a beetle. Still others remained - one of them appeared to be a man in a business suit, his hair combed in an almost corporate cut of sorts with a beard across his chin - though other than he seemed to be designed as a completely normal human man. Next to him stood a another feminine figure, about as slim as the Queen though taller than any of the other masculine figures; though the color had faded it could still be seen that her eyes were intended to be a shade of green, and her long black hair matching with bulk of her outfit, which seemed to be a black form fitting suit with heels, though sporting armor across her forearms and torso complete with a cape. 

Last though not least there was one last masculine figure, who seemed at first to be human though the faded red colors used for his skin alongside his ears being notably pointed may just suggest otherwise. His hair seemed to be slicked back and black in color, with a thin mustache across his upper lips; he seemed to be wearing a black-yellow bodysuit, with his chest sporting a symbol that Shadow failed to recognize - it vaguely resembled a lantern, though also was akin to a grenade or perhaps a ring. It being so simple as to be merely lines it was difficult for Shadow to tell. His pose also was intriguing, he had one of his arms curled up in order to show the back of his fist, highlighting a rink on one of his fingers. 

_ These must be the people that work for him. _

He easily deduced, inquisitively memorizing the designs of all these figures, though he only knew one of them personally so far.

_ I can tell Goodness is among them ,but who are the others? _

_ Guess I’ll find out soon. _

Though he passed these figures by within such short spans of time, Shadow had more than a good enough look at them.

He knew not who or what they were, but he did know who they were aligned with. That was more than enough for him.

The stay in this silent room thankfully did last much longer - the moment the group gathered on the ledge at the other end of it it took merely another blast of Omega’s RPG cannon for them to walk nicely into the next one afterwards: it was a room much like the first one they had entered, only a bit larger of a square, and featuring a drop by one step in the center floor where the bee mosaic stood in the center. On one side of the room were a series of dusty jars layed out in perfect lines, on the other a row of three repeating statues of the same ‘hedgehog’ ‘god’ as before.

There also was no stone door for this chamber, instead there was merely an opening in a complex of an intricate sandstone archway held up by multiple columns reaching up to the stone ceiling. 

Yet again, the only lighting remained the candles perched repeatedly across all of the walls. Their crackling provided the only noise besides that of the buzzing and hissing, which was a strong hint that even though things were easy now - they weren’t precisely in the ‘hornet’s nest’ quite yet. That didn’t stop Oliver from bringing it up though:

“I can’t shake the feeling that this is a little too easy so far.”

“Well it’s not gonna be for very long, now that you brought it up” Rouge was swift to remark with, shaking her head. Of course he was joking, though at the same time hoping she wasn’t.

The next chamber of interest they found was but another elongated hall, though separating their entrance from their exit was a deep abyss of utter darkness - a seemingly bottomless pit that no amount of light seemed possible of revealing the inhabitants of, if any were even there. The only things preventing his chasm from being inevitable were a pair of large platforms of stone, albeit sporting a decently large gap between the both of them, that in an alternating pattern seemed to slowly propel themselves from either side of the wall spanning across the pit.

Whatever mechanism was behind these was of course hidden behind the walls themselves, though regardless that was of no concern to the group as they progressed.

Omega and Rouge certainly didn’t need the platforms as the two of them could both fly over all of them perfectly fine. Only Shadow and Oliver made any actual use of them, though they did have to use their time carefully in order to do so before they vanished back into the slot of wall from which they came. Shadow easily jumped from one of them to the other like they were stones over a pond, while Oliver used specialized arrows that acted almost like that of grappling cables to get himself across the gap with ease.

Once all of the group was on the other end of the chasm, they were faced with the largest chamber yet - in fact it could hardly even be called that, for what they saw hardly fit with any of what they had seen yet. What their eyes were greeted with was a return to the cave that they had entered through, though on a far larger scale. It was a wide though still obviously enclosed area, with curved walls of earth heading directly towards a massive pillar of cave rock in the center; itself leading directly into a slowly rising pit of desert sand, supplied by waterfall-like streams of it flowing from the ‘ceiling’ of the area.

There wasn’t much stone on which to stand however, though there were two separate entrances on either side of the ‘room’ to more chambers of this underground complex. However, with them being on opposing sides of such a large area, the only things creating a direct path to them were two branching paths of stone platforms, held above the lake of sand by mighty columns. There also was an enormous wall of darkness in the far back of what they were looking at, due to the light of the candles not being present on that end; this added a veil of mystery as to what possibly waited on that end, if anything at all.

With other things to focus on however, they fixated on the two paths that they could see.

“Well” Oliver remarked, “Which way do we go? We don’t exactly have a map.”

“Omega?” Shadow asked, turning to the robot of the team with arms folded. Omega’s response came shortly after:

“My scan indicates that both visible routes are nearly identical and therefore equally optimal for travelling.”

“Hm”

“Well” Oliver replied, “Guess we just pick one and go with it.”

“Hmph” Shadow grunted, still keeping his arms folded as his eyes scanned the area. When he looked off to the left path a second time however, he noticed out of the corner of his eyes something - someone, who immediately drew his attention.

From what he could tell, it was that tall woman he had fought on the Kalinske prior to it’s destruction; Big Barda. He could see her running to the other side of the stone door on the left side of the room, vanishing behind it as it promptly closed.

Remembering the confrontation they had as well as the fact she was aligned with Granny Goodness and Mephiles, Shadow’s face turned from merely scanning the environment to glaring at the direction in which she was headed. Without even turning to the others at all, he said firmly:

“You guys take the right path, I’ll head left on my own!”

Before Rouge, Omega or Oliver could even respond at all, Shadow had already jumped into the air and spinning himself into a ball rammed his way directly through the stone door on the left side of the chamber.

“Shadow!” Rouge called out, taking flight to attempt in following him as her and the others had been so abruptly caught off-guard, though by the time she was close to the shattered door all she could hear was another massive crashing sound, followed by the sight of the walls and ceiling of the hall caving in - clouds of dust churning out towards her as she looked on in worry. Once it was over, there was little to no way for her personally to get inside, the piles of rubble being far too thick and made of damaged stone for her to simply dig through.

When Omega and Oliver arrived to the scene, Omega was already beginning to shift his arms and hands into weapons to fire away with the repeating rounds of gatling gun rounds at the pile of rubble without saying a single word, while Oliver offered a remark:

“Okay, that escalated quickly…”

“I know I should be used to him doing that” Rouge admitted, “But I still hope he’s okay….”

“I’m sure he will. I know I haven’t spent as much time with you guys as Barry or Wally, but from what I’ve seen so far, he will-”

Oliver and Rouge both were cut off in their conversation by what a sound from behind them. It was from a distance, but ebbing ever closer at a rapid speed. It was the sound of hissing, screeching, and buzzing. Hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of individuals making these noises at once while rapidly approaching from the distant chambers on the other side of where they were. What’s worse, is that none of these sounds seemed very calm by any stretch of the word.

Even Omega stopped his efforts and turned in the direction of the sound once his scans indicated the approaching storm. There was not much that could be done though, as just as they saw what was coming towards them there was only time for one last comment from Oliver as he gazed on in petrified shock:

“I take back what I said about this being too easy…”

* * *

When Shadow rammed clean through the stone door and was rapidly spinning towards Barda with full intention of striking her in the center of her back, he hadn’t anticipated her reflexes; the moment she heard him barreling through the door behind her she knew well she had mere seconds if even that to react, gripping tightly onto her sword she turned and swung it in her opponent’s direction with as much Apokoliptian strength that she could muster - managing with just as much luck to land a direct hit and slam Shadow directly into the wall beside herself.

The impact of the strike alone was enough to generate a shockwave strong enough to make her feet scrape along the stone floor just to keep from falling over, let alone the impact of when Shadow slammed directly into the wall behind her. As she herself looked upon her spear as it crumbled to mere pieces, she was met with the entire wall around her crumbling apart - the walls and ceiling falling down upon both herself and Shadow; trapping them in just as it locked Shadow’s allies out.

One second she had been standing in a stone hall alight only by candles, the next she was seemingly trapped beneath heaps of dust and rubble with only an abyss of darkness for her eyes to see. This would have been a death sentence for any mere mortal, but Barda had more than enough strength to claw her way out of the debris that attempted to crush her, and from there get herself back to her feet.

Back on her feet, Barda turned to look at the mound of debris that she had created; her eyes remained in a patient glare, awaiting for her opponent to re-emerge. Though her spear had just been destroyed, it was of little concern for her. She was the one who trained and led the Furies on the field, she knew well how to handle herself with or without a weapon.

Though it seemed to take a while, she knew well that she had not killed her enemy. She knew what Shadow was.

Her patience ultimately paid off, as soon enough she was greeted with an eruption of dust and stone pebbles from the mound, and not long afterwards Shadow the Hedgehog landing right before her. Initially kneeling, he stood the moment he looked up and made eye contact with her.

Both of them entering battle ready stances, they knew this would be their time to settle things without any interruptions.

“You’ve made a mistake coming here, Hedgehog” Barda said with fists readied, “Though I suppose even if you wanted to, there’s no turning back now.”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Shadow answered, “I never turn back.”

With that exchange, the two lunged at each other, their fists clashing with yet another shockwave that sent them both flipping backwards a fair distance from each other - though Shadow used the mound of rubble behind him as a launching pad to spring himself at a mighty velocity towards Barda, practically tackling her just as she was on her feet again.

What went on from that was nothing short of a dance of death between the two - with neither having any weapons on hand anymore it was a completely physical affair, starting with them repeatedly slamming one another into the walls of the hall with either punches or just the sheer force they used to ram into each other with, though either way the impacts of each of them into the walls were more than enough to trigger more cave-ins of both the ceiling and the walls, only causing even more crashes and booms to echo through the underground.

As the two clashed in their fierce hand-to-hand combat session, it was more than apparent that the two were practically a match for each other. Barda’s golden shield was able to help her evade several direct hits from Shadow’s physical attacks though it was taking a severe round of punishment with how rapid Shadow’s violent strikes were. Barda was not entirely defensive however, as she eventually saw an opening and successfully kicked Shadow in the side, jumping via a backflip once he retaliated with a chaos spear. Once he pounced on her again she retaliated by using her legs to grab hold of him and fling him directly onto the floor - though he responded with a sweeping kick enhanced with chaos energy around his feet once she attempted to perform a drop kick onto her. It was effective enough to send her careening directly into and through the stone door they had managed to push each other towards.

Barda found herself landing in the middle of a rectangular chamber, the majority of it being situated a small drop lower than what was left to walk along - with 6 circular holes planted across it, two on either end and two along the side. These holes led nowhere save for a completely black abyss, though they added a hint of danger to whatever it was this room served as. On the upper level of this chamber was not much special, just the closed stone door that was hiding the way to proceed further and the stone columns used to support the underground structure in the first place, lining the room to add at least a bit of flavor to it besides the bronze light of the candles.

She didn’t have much time to soak up any more of the atmosphere though, for Shadow let again threw himself at her. Using her shield she was able to successfully deflect him though the impact still sent her grinding across the floor until her ankles hit the wall behind her, at which point Shadow launched a barrage of chaos spears right at her. Ever the skilled fighter though, she dodged this onslaught by breaking into a run until she was able to jump onto the ledge above herself and from there threw herself right at the airborne hedgehog.

Yet again clashing in the air, there were shockwaves generated from the impact of the two punching each other in the face alone; let alone the fact that both of them flew diagonally to the ground immediately after such powerful strikes; two large crashes of dust and stone kicked up into the air from the impact of them hitting the floor. Once it all cleared, the two wasted little time in getting back up to face each other - though for a moment they settled for a silent stand-off, glaring at each other with fury in their eyes.

“I can see why His Eminence wanted you to succeed Doomsday, you’re far more formidable.”

“His Eminence…” Shadow remarked, “I’m going to assume you mean Mephiles.”

“You’d be correct.”

After that brief exchange, the two clashed again - though this time on the floor. Following clashing their fists together with a bunch, Barda yet again deflected a kick using her shield before swinging it right at Shadow’s head. Shadow retaliated by sliding underneath her, only missing because she flipped to avoid the strike itself. Once facing each other once more, Shadow was the one to speak first:

“Elaborate” he demanded, “Tell me everything that you know!”

“About what?” Barda asked, a smirk on her face as she was merely faking her obliviousness. If only to annoy Shadow a bit, something which was successful:

“You know what!”

Shadow threw himself into the air and launched another barrage of chaos spears at Barda, though she was able to evade the blasts and in turn lunge herself at Shadow in return. However Shadow used chaos control just before contact was made, successfully teleporting himself behind Barda as she swung her fist at him and allowing him to kick her right in the back and to the ground below. Though once he used his spinning form to barrel himself down towards her a kick from both of her feet was enough to send him flying into a wall. Albeit, the two wasted no time in yet again lunging at each other - Barda yet again using her shield to send Shadow into the air when he came at her like a speeding pinball, only for him to stop himself using the boosters in his shoes and use his mid air stance to fire chaos spears at her.

“Granny Goodness told me Black Doom was a ‘viable’ source of Apokoliptian DNA!” Shadow exclaimed as he landed his feet back on the ground and yet again had a stand-off against Barda, “I want to know what she meant!”

Without dropping her eye contact with Shadow, Barda responded to his demand by at the very least giving him what he wanted:

“Black Doom was an avatar for His Eminence” she explained, “First to supply you with the blood of the dark lord, and then to test you.”

“Test me?” Shadow said as he chaos controlled again, though this time Barda was ready and successfully turned to block his kick with her hand the moment he appeared behind her, “Test me for what?!”

Breaking from her hold, Shadow and Barda yet again entered into a stand-off as she explained to her foe:

“Either how obedient you would be, or how effective you would be as a guardian.”

“A guardian?” Shadow questioned while dodging a direct kick from Barda, before grabbing her leg and successfully swinging her directly into one of the walls, “A guardian of what?”

It was with a smirk that Barda delivered to Shadow the answer for which he asked:

“New Apokolips.”

Hearing those two words together as one, Shadow’s eyes widened. He knew nothing of what Apokolips was, let alone what an Apokoliptian was, though based on what Barry had said of it before it was certainly nothing good. As though yet again clashed into each other, Shadow made sure to confront this information:

“ _ New  _ Apokolips? What happened to the old one?”

“I’m pretty sure your speedster friend already told you by this point.”

The two exchanged a few more blows, yet again knocking each other to either end of the chamber, before immediately charging at one another again. A single chaos spear from Shadow followed by a punch from Barda sent both of them back to the ground in the center, yet again initiating another stand-off. Though he knew that what Barda said meant that the original Apokolips was destroyed beyond resurrection, there was still that unanswered question as to what this ‘new’ one was. Looking directly at her, Shadow refused to drop the point as he confronted her with the question:

“And the  _ new _ one?”

“Let me give you a hint” Barda said as a smirk sprawled across her face, “You’re already on it right now.”

_ So, she’s saying….that’s what Mephiles plans for this world. _

_ But why? What exactly is he.... _

Realizing that, Shadow was just beginning to grasp just what kind of being he truly was up against. 

Shadow and Barda continued to trade blows; Shadow dodged one of Barda’s punches by dodging low, sweeping his legs to bring her to the floor - only for her to kick him clean through one of the columns once he tried to pounce onto her. She promptly lunged herself through the dust cloud after he hit the wall on the other side, though he quickly spun into his ball form and like a boomerang slammed into her side to ram her into a wall to return the favor. Leaving his ball form he yet again launched a chaos spear at her, though she got up and leapt away from the strike - prompting him to instead ignite his fists in chaos energy to fire a continuous blast directly at her. Barda was struck in the back and to the ground, though yet again was able to recover when Shadow stopped this blast and tried to barrel onto her in ball form; she was able to kick him out of ball form and to the ground before he could strike her, though it still made her hiss with how much effort she actually had to exert in order to do so.

Though they both were showing signs of their battle, from blood from their mouths to various scrapes across their bodies.

Now breathing more heavily than even before, Shadow continued to confront Barda with questions during these times of breaking between their battle:

“Everyone who’s worked with Mephiles so far seems to have been ‘recruited’ in some form” he said, “Were you the same?”

“As a matter of fact” Barda replied, “Yes, you could say that.”

Though he grunted in curiosity, he still remained silent. A cue for her to continue to elaborate, something which she picked up on and complied with not long after:

“As you may already have guessed, I’m an Apokoliptian, born and raised on the original Apokolips - the planet once ruled by Darkseid. Or more specifically, I was raised and trained in the Orphanage, where Granny Goodness trained me to be the leader of the Furies; to describe that place as a school of hard knocks would be an understatement to say the least, but I passed with flying colors. It all started well and good, but then I met - him.”

“Him?” Shadow couldn’t help but raise a brow, still neither of them had let down their guard - yet their conversation remained completely civil if not casual, with Barda herself clarifying who ‘him’ referred to:

“His name was Scott Free,” she explained, “alias Mister Miracle. He was the son of Highfather, ruler of New Genesis, though just as Darkseid had traded his son Orion, Highfather traded Scott as a peace treaty between our two worlds. I met Scott for myself while I was leading the Furies on one of our raids, and I couldn’t help but feel this, this peace about him. It brought out a feeling within me that I felt with no other.”

“You were in love with him, basically.”

“Yes” Barda nodded, “I suppose I was.”

“What is, or was, New Genesis?” Shadow asked after a calming pause of contemplation, “And what happened with you and Scott Free?”

Barda took a moment to take in that question, as if something about it brought in a memory that most certainly wasn’t her proudest moment. Yet still, she felt as though she owed such a skilled fighter answers to everything he wanted to know - it was just the two of them in this room, after all. As such, she began to explain further to the Hedgehog before her:

“New Genesis were the eternal rivals of Apokolips, the flip side of the coin so to speak. They were the benevolent alternatives to Darkseid, though they still had their share of corrupted hubris - Higfather Izaya used his peace treaty with Darkseid to focus on starting a war with the Lantern Corps for seizing control of their rings, which is what gave Darkseid an opening for an acceleration of his conquests in the first place. Had it not been for the Justice League stopping his first assault on Earth, he would have continued to go along unopposed. Only at the end did Izaya realize what he let himself and New Genesis become…”

“The end....is that related to whatever happened with Scott Free to lead you to Mephiles?”

“As a matter of fact” Barda yet again nodded, “It is…”

* * *

_ 2018 CE; PREVIOUS TIMELINE _

The story which Barda told to Shadow began on the eve of the Justice League’s ill-fated attack on Apokolips, approximately ten or so hours from when the invasion itself was launched. Barda was sitting in a pilot’s chair right alongside Scott Free as the two of them had discreetly departed from Apokolips not long after Darkseid gave the orders for the Furies and his elite to go off-world to serve as an occupying force for his now running-rampant empire. The pair knew that it was well beyond risky to desert from the forces of Apokolips’ ruler, though they saw no greater opportunity for their escape.

The moment Darkseid gave out the orders and had Apokolips temporarily phase into a close enough range to Earth, Barda and Scott flew in on a lightweight cruiser accompanying the stealth drones that were also released into the Sol System - though they were sure to have their ships’ cloaking devices turned on even before they took flight, as to not have themselves be spotted by Darkseid or those horrifying abominations that were now his prized pets. With it activated, they were safe from detection from just about anything as they traversed the vacuum of space towards Earth - invisible to everything that was outside of their ship. Watching as the metallic hellworld that was Apokolips phased itself back to it’s proper place behind them, Barda and Scott couldn’t help but feel as though they were on a streak of perhaps the greatest luck imaginable.

Turning to Scott just as they were approaching the sandy, ringed gas giant that was Saturn, Barda even commented as such:

“I can see why they call you the New God of Escape, let alone Mister Miracle.”

“Thanks” Scott responded, dressed in his full Mister Miracle garb - that green cape of his that had a tall, popped collar that was level with his head - itself donned in a full face mask of red and yellow, this same color scheme continuing along his metallic full bodysuit with the only exceptions being his green boots and the green ‘speedo’ covering he had for his lower regions. His legs, arms, chest and the back of his head were predominantly covered in red, the rest of him golden yellow sans his torso. It’s use of colors certainly contrasted with that of Apokolips’ traditionally grim appearance, making it hard to believe he had been raised there - something which he was sure to comment on; “I don’t know why I didn’t escape that hellhole sooner.”

“Oh” Barda smirked as she replied back, “I can think of at least  _ one _ .”

Scott couldn’t help but chuckle in response to that, just slightly nervously, as though a cat had mostly certainly gotten his tongue. Even so, he still had to at least say something in response:

“Well, I can’t really say no to that.”

“Hm” Barda smirked for a moment before, before her face turned back to one of focusing on the travel just as her eyes went back to the front window of their cruiser; earth was still directly in their path and getting ever closer, even if they were still at the current time still far closer to Saturn and Jupiter. “As satisfying it is to be free of Apokolips, we both know that we won’t be out of the woods immediately.”

Scott, though certainly wishing for more time of enjoyment, also went along with this abrupt shift in tone:

“Do you think he’s going to follow us the moment he sees we’re not where he deployed you?”

“No” Barda answered, “He’s going to invade earth sooner or later, why else do you think he created those _ things _ ?”

“Right, the...”

“Paradooms” Barda finished for him, “Parademons upgraded with Kryptonian DNA. It took him until now to create them only because he doesn’t have Desaad anymore.”

“And the universe sure was a fool for thinking that’d stop him at all” Scott shook his head while looking towards Earth before turning to look at Barda, “So, how long will we have?”

“Not very long” the defecting Fury explained, “From what I was able to swipe off of his files, he’s already making preparations. He intends to wait for the Justice League of Earth to make the first move this time, and he probably wanted everyone off-world to make himself appear vulnerable in the first place. He’s trying to bait them into a direct attack.”

“He really thinks they’d be that stupid?”

“Even if they don’t, he’ll likely launch a direct assault on his own sooner or later” Barda remarked, “He most likely would simply prefer the League get taken care of first, and separately. With the Lantern Corps and New Genesis still at war he’s basically conquering system after system unopposed.”

“Yeah” Scott remarked, “Still can’t believe Atrocitus took out Metron, and then gave the chair to Apokolips.”

“There’s not much hope or will left with Darkseid’s rapidly expanding control, though I imagine fear and rage are in surplus right now.”

“Yeah, but why give the chair to Darkseid?”

“Atrocitus and the red lanterns probably didn’t see any use for it” Barda reasoned, “And they likely wanted to placate Darkseid so that they remain on peaceful terms with him.”

“For now.”

Barda nodded, adding:

“I also imagine Sinestro was out of the question, before you bring him up.”

“That’s right! With Darkseid invading left and right, he must be getting a hell of a power boost right now. It’s weird how he seems to be doing nothing at all, and Darkseid hasn’t even tried anything on Korugar yet - is he going to?”

“Actually, it seems like Korugar has disappeared.”

“What?”

“It and Tamaran both seemed to vanish by the time Darkseid was prepared to survey them, based on the intel I swiped. All that’s left of where they were is what seems to be what can best be described as a massive field of darkness. Stealth drones sent to investigate all malfunction without fail, so any plans to invade those planets seem to have been aborted.”

“That’s….strange” Scott remarked, his voice trailing as he imagined the scene out in his head, “What do you think could cause that?”

“I don’t know, but that’s all the information I could get out of Apokolips before I had to book it out. The only other things I swiped were a few images from conquered planets” it was then that she began typing on the ship’s control panel keypads, explaining her actions to Scott justly “I’m going to be sending these directly to the Justice League’s watchtower, along with information of the Paradooms; they need to know what they’re about to be getting into.”

Plugging a simple drive into a slot on the ship’s panel, she began to remotely connect with the Justice League’s Watchtower station, and with a few more clicks and typed words was beginning to transfer data from the drive directly to the watchtower. However, due to still being so far away from Earth the transfer was incredibly slow and was essentially a mere single file at a time, much to her irritation; even letting out a frustrated groan.

“What’s wrong?” Scott asked;

“There’s too much interference between us and Earth, the transfer’s being slowed down.”

“Don’t worry, Barda” Scott replied, “So far there’s nothing in our way, it’ll get nice and fast by the time we’re past the asteroid belt. Besides….don’t you have a motherbox?”

“I must have dropped it in my rush to prevent Darkseid spotting what I was doing” she said, before shaking her head furiously and muttering, “Damnit!”

“Don’t worry, again, there’s nothing to-”

It was then, at that very moment, that the two were interrupted. A sound not too different at all from that of a boom tube opening up shot through the quarters of the cruiser where they had been driving, coming from incredibly close behind them - close enough and loud enough to warrant them turning around to see whom or what was intruding on their escape. To their relief, it wasn’t Darkseid himself, though to their concern it was none other than the commander Granny Goodness with a certain being known as Mephiles right beside her. Mephiles was donning his true, crystalline form when he appeared before them - though with a single notable difference. He had an additional pair of eyes immediately above his primary pair, making the latter appear slightly smaller perhaps as though the additional pair had separated from them. There was little time to dwell on this however, as Barda and Free had to react to seeing these two. 

“Granny!” Barda shouted, immediately pulling out her spear and preparing for battle as her and Free both got out of their seats and charged at the two. However, Granny Goodness herself just remained silent, her hands cupped together behind her back as she let Mephiles do his work.

Firing from his eyes not two but  _ four  _ red omega beams at once from each of his demonic eyes, both Barda and Free were strong enough to not be immediately incinerated but instead were struck by the beams into the control panel of the cruiser - damaging it severely along with the drive that had been transferring intel to the watchtower. Most tragically it had just been about to transfer files relating to the paradooms prior to this intrusion, thus denying the heroes of Earth any forewarning of what awaited them. Barda herself would only learn this later, for now she was fixated on trying to get herself back up using her spear - only to be struck back onto her back from a blast of four straight-aimed beams courtesy of Mephiles. These weren’t prone to turning or aiming like the Omega beams, though still burned a bright hot red just like them.

Only after this did Granny Goodness approach, allowing Mephiles to be the one cupping his hands behind his back as he watched, levitating himself towards Scott Free just as Goodness put a foot down onto Barda’s chest before she could even get back on her feet again - clamping it down on the struggling woman as her other foot was used to kick away the warrior’s spear just when Goodness saw she was reaching for it.

A smirk plastered across her face, Goodness naturally mocked Barda’s situation in her usual tone of ruthless sadism:

“So you really have decided to turn traitor, I see” she remarked, “Such a shame. I honestly thought you knew better, Barda. Oh well, I do quite like having the chance to re-instill proper  _ discipline _ into the ungrateful.”

Barda was practically gritting her teeth as her hands clasped tightly onto Granny Goodness’ foot that was so brutally stomping hard against her chest. The older woman just looking down on her with a calm yet still sadistic look, that condescending smirk not leaving in the slightest as she turned her head to the direction of where Mephiles and Scott were. Her smirk turned to more of a cruel grin just as Barda witnessed just what was being admired. Much to her own fear, it was Mephiles managing to left Scott Free into the air with a single hand - grabbing hold tightly of Free’s neck while looking directly at him struggling in his grasp. The fact the demonic being lacked a mouth made it unsettling yes, though mostly it made it unsure if this action was being enjoyed or done out of pure ferocity. Perhaps both.

It didn’t take long for Mephiles to prepare his other clawed hand for what was no doubt an impending impalement.

Realizing this, Barda couldn’t simply remain silent:

“No! Don’t!”

Her words were able to stop the impending death from happening at that moment, with both Mephiles and Granny Goodness turning their heads in Barda’s direction. Of the two, Goodness was the one to speak:

“Oh Barda, letting a man bring out the weakness in you” Goodness spoke in a teasing, ever condescending tone, “You should count yourself lucky that you’re more valuable to us alive yourself, otherwise you’d be in his situation right now yourself.” 

“Barda…” Scott tried to speak, though his voice was severely hindered due to how hard Mephiles’ grip on his throat was; it was hard enough to still be agonizingly painful though not quite enough to properly strangle him, at least not so quickly.

“Please” Barda continued to argue and plea for his life, her love for him overpowering the rest of her senses, “The peace treaty with New Genesis; kill him, and it will be null and void!”

“The necessity for peace with New Genesis is no longer a thing, I’m afraid” Granny Goodness coldly answered, “You’ll have to produce a better argument than that.”

“If you let him live” Barda then found herself saying, “I promise to you my eternal loyalty to Darkseid; I promise I will never let the thought of betrayal even cross my mind once, none of this will happen again. You have my absolute promise.”

Rather than replying, Granny Goodness looked to Mephiles as if to make it clear it was him who needed to answer. In return, Mephiles offered a silent nod and released Scott from his grasp, letting him drop to the metal floor of the cruiser with a thud as Goodness let her foot off of Barda’s chest. 

Barda was not quite free yet though, not by a long shoot. Goodness was quick to grab her and effectively shove her into a position of kneeling before Mephiles as the latter levitated in front of her. As if knowing that Barda was facing heavy confusion at being humiliatingly forced to get on her knees before a being that wasn’t the lord of Apokolips himself, Goodness was ‘kind’ enough to explain the situation in full to her:

“Pledge your loyalty to  _ Mephiles  _ now” she said, “Lord of  _ New _ Apokolips.”

At first, hearing that sent both shock and confusion throughout Barda’s mind. She looked up at Mephiles with widened, perplexed eyes as he in turn merely looked down on her in foreboding silence - his hands cupped behind his back in a manner not different at all from her previous overlord. Without a mouth she couldn’t properly read his emotions at all, though the fact his eyes sported glowing red sclera yet reptilian green irises in a practically demonic fashion all looking down on her in complete silence said just about everything she needed to know about him. 

“I..I don’t under-”

“I am the union of Demon and New God” Mephiles interrupted her with a voice of such coldness that it only further drove the point across, “Of Darkseid and the demon lord Trigon; I suggest you pay your loyalty to me now while I still feel it necessary to include you in my plans.”

The tone in his voice said more than his words themselves did; she dare not ask any further questions. Instead, she merely bowed her head in respect to this figure, taking his word for it that he was precisely who and what he said he was. She was quick to follow through well with what it was this dark lord and Goodness wanted from her:

“I pledge my loyalty to you, dark lord Mephiles” she said, “From here on out, I promise to you my eternal loyalty. I vow to spread your will throughout the galaxy, no matter what it is that you will for existence. Please….forgive, my betrayal.”

“I trust that you will stay through to your oath. Be grateful for that” and with those words, Mephiles turned back to Scott Free who was just stumbling back onto his feet. Without hesitation, Mephiles confronted him: “As for you on the other hand…”

Scott Free barely had any time to say anything, standing up all he could do was glare ever angrily at the demonic lord standing before him. Having heard every word of what he had said, he thus knew what he was dealing with and yet still glared defiantly at him, unafraid.Prepared for the worst as the demon turned to face him, he was caught off guard when Mephiles extended out a hand not to kill him but to instead open one of his swirling portals right where he stood - looks of shock taking over both Miracle and Barda as the former was whisked away to wherever the portal led to within a matter of mere seconds. Barda hardly had the time to even reach out a hand to him as she watched, a rare event in her life where she was utterly helpless.

Not one to sob, she still could not hide the fact that she was hurt by such a sudden action. The pain in her voice was clear as day:

“I swore my loyalty to you!” she shouted, “If-”

“And I made no such promise” Mephiles fiercely interjected, looking at her with a menacing glare more than capable of silencing her just as Darkseid himself was, “However, I assure you that he’s not deceased. I merely removed him from this dimension, and introduced him to another; one where he will no longer instill insubordination within my ranks while keeping your pathetic pleading to a minimum. I trust that I won't be regretting this decision?”

Bowing her head yet again, Barda offered merely a quiet, hushed response:

“N-no” she said, “You won’t be, Mephiles…”

However, as Mephiles turned his gaze away from her it could not be hidden that Barda was angrily glaring at her new so-called master. This infuriated glare was not one of loyalty by any stretch of the imagination, but one of unmitigated rage; it did not matter if what Mephiles said to her was true or not. Neither Mephiles nor Goodness seemed to think much of what had just transpired either, for Mephiles quickly opened yet another portal and gestured to the two of them:

“Come, Barda” he said to her, “It’s time to inform the rest of the Furies of my arrival.”

Closing her eyes and bowing her head one more time, Barda made sure to retrieve her spear as well as her shield before following Mephiles and Goodness to parts yet unknown. All the while internally vowing to never forget what happened in that cruiser; though Mephiles’ word was that he lived, she had more than a good idea of what ‘dimension’ he had actually been transported to, if the fact this monster was part Darkseid was anything to go to. If anything, what he had told her she knew well was as much truth as it was lie.

Not that it mattered after it was all done though.

All that was left for her was the long, bitter wait for her chance at revenge. Even if she had to wait through yet another lifetime of the torture Granny reffered to as ‘discipline’.

* * *

_ 2006; CURRENT TIMELINE _

“And that is how I came to work for Mephiles” with that sentence, Barda had finished her retelling of the events to Shadow, who had listened to the entire thing with the utmost attention. There was but one thing Shadow was perplexed about however, with it becoming the basis for his next question:

“After all that, you’re still loyal to him?”

“Not if you trust me.”

“Huh?”

“If you trust me, I fully intend on joining you in bringing him down” Barda explained, easing up her stance to be less confrontational as the surprised Shadow did the same, “I had to earn his and Granny’s trust and make things look convincing before I defected a second time; and I also needed a few powerful allies if it was to have any chance at making a difference. If you’re willing to trust me, I’ll take you right to where he and all of his elite are meeting.”

Extending her hand out in peace, Shadow looked at both it and her face for a few seconds; getting himself a good read on her. Feeling that she had proven herself both a powerful opponent and an equally powerful ally, Shadow grabbed her hand and accepted her shake as well as establishing trust. Both of them nodded in respect of the other, maintaining eye contact even after their shake was completed. The two of them both knowing that time was of the essence, Shadow was quick to focusing on the business at hand:

“We need to regroup with Omega, Rouge and Oliver first.”

“I understand” Barda nodded, “They should be-”

Their moment was promptly interrupted once more, in all that had just gone on between them they had not thought much of the mysterious holes and accompanying black abysses that were present in the chamber. Their minds only remembered them now, as a storm of ruthless buzzes, hisses and ear piercing screeches echoed through them - barreling ever closer towards them. From the sounds alone they could tell they were facing thousands, if not millions, of incoming hostiles.

They also knew exactly what was coming.

Both of them preparing for the incoming onslaught, all that could be said by Barda was the most obvious:

“It appears the hive’s woken up.”

  
  


When the Changeling swarm had awoken, there was nothing that could truly stop it. Hundreds upon thousands, possibly even millions of man sized ‘hornets’ charging out from what appeared to be every possible anger in the most ravenous of manners was not something anyone could possibly prepare for - but it wasn’t in Omega’s programming to simply give up and die. It was fortunate for Team Dark that he was a machine - he had neither DNA nor ‘emotions’ for the Changelings to drain, leaving their core abilities practically useless against him. Instead they were forced to fixate on getting close and clawing, even trying to use their stingers at his metallic body, leaving themselves more than open to the assortment of weapons at his disposal.

With a wide variety of missiles, gun turrets and laser beams the robot was easily able to tear his way through each Changeling that dared to approach him, dropping so many of them from the air that it was as if they were flying directly into the ferocious blades of a woodchipper.

The same could be said however, for Rouge and Oliver.

It wasn’t for lack of skill; they certainly put up a fight against them. Though without a heavy hitter like Shadow and with Omega fully occupied, they were more than easily separated from the robots’ immediate vicinity and overwhelmed by the sheer number of foes they were faced with. The entire chamber was echoing out the sounds of their screeches as well as the buzzing of their wings, more than enough to induce migraines or headaches.

Rouge’s martial arts prowess and Oliver’s arrows could only do so much before eventually the two were grabbed. Oliver while on the ground, having jumped himself over to one of the platforms after a few of his explosive arrows appeared to be effective. He turned around to shoot at one of the beasts unaware that another was just about to pounce on his back.

“Gah!” he grunted, shouting, “Get off me you piece of-” he couldn’t even finish his sentence before it had opened its mouth wide enough to reveal a true horror. Using it’s mandibles to hold it’s target in place it extended its already horrific mouth to reveal what appeared to be a second mouth, one with more mammalian appearing teeth - namely the inclusion of two notable long fanged teeth. The mouth shot out like a chameleon's tongue onto Oliver’s neck as the fangs promptly sank themselves in deep. The blonde man let out a pained groan as he soon could feel as though his emotions were being drained directly from him; not merely the negative ones such as the anger he was feeling towards this monster, but any positive emotion as well. By the time he was being carried off to the path from which the swarm had charged at the group for he was completely without emotion - his entire body falling limp and making no resistance, a look of utter boredom as well as weakness from a significant drainage of blood taking over him as his captor took him off to where it had come from.

By the time she was able to witness this, Rouge was already in the air using her own martial arts kicks and aerial maneuvers to evade and keep at bay the Changeling swarm around her. She was far too occupied to immediately assist Oliver, though once she saw him being taken away by one of the beasts she let out a concerned shout:

“O-Oliver!” she immediately tried to fly after the Changeling which carried him away, though in doing so left herself open. One of them swooped in from above her with intent on stinging her directly through her back. Thankfully she was able to turn and avoid this, though she wasn’t so lucky when another one managed to whack her directly in the face with one of its arms, sending her into the waiting clutches of another.

As she soon panicked and struggled within its grasp, she too was met with the same fate as Oliver:

“Ngh! Ah!” she yelled, “Get off of me, you disgusting-” her yells and screams soon trailed off once the fangs were sunk into her skin, draining her of all her emotions. Of her anger, fear, hope, love, avarice, love, compassion, and perhaps most importantly in this situation her willpower. By the time it was done not only was she weak from having a portion of her blood so rapidly drained, but she was also emotionally numb and practically zombified, also offering no resistance as the beast carried her off to where it was that it came from.

This did not go unnoticed from Omega however, quite the contrary actually. While still blasting away at the swarm around him with both rapid-fire machine gun cannons as well as lock-on laser shoots from the barrels of his arms he was easily able to detect and witness the capture of both Oliver and Rouge. He would have immediately made moves to prevent it had he been able to bare witness to it sooner, though instead he had to adjust his priorities after the fact:

“New Top Priority Acquired: Rescue Oliver Queen and Rouge the Bat. Confirmed.”

While it was true that Omega was unfortunately too slow to keep sight of Rouge or Oliver, he also wasted no time in following after the Changelings that took them immediately; marching and firing his way through the swarm around him like that of an unstoppable tank. 

Try as they may, the Changelings were unable to come close to destroying Omega. Between rapidly swinging his entire torso around to knock enough of them loose, emitting electric discharges when he ran the risk of being lifted into the air, and all of his other previously utilized weaponry it was abundantly clear that they would have to use things other than brute force to deal with the machine - even so, like any swarm acting in defense of queen and hive, they didn’t seem to be so keen to change their strategy so quickly just yet.

If Rouge and Omega still retained any of their emotions, they would be hoping dearly that Omega would reach them in time.

* * *

_ Some are haunted by the tolling bells…. _

_ Some by the fiery pits of Hell…. _

_ But what haunts me is what we did see…. _

_ When we entered the larder of.... _

They didn’t know how much time had passed, but what they did come to know was that they sincerely regretted opening their eyes at all.

The first thing that they noticed was that they were together inside of a damp, stone cell. Rather crudely placed against the hard walls, they noticed there were no chains yet to keep them restrained, the only thing keeping them in being the bars along the entrance to their room of imprisonment. Looking around, they could soon see walls and floor were without anything to make them particularly distinct, aside from the dried blood that painted it all a gruesome dark red. 

They could only assume that the blood belonged to the skeletons that served as their cellmates. They could make out at least 3 skulls, though not only were they entirely without flesh but their rib cages were all ripped open, their arms detached from their shoulders and the rest of their bodies beneath their chest destroyed - littering the floor room like the remains of a holiday feast along the table.

Little did they know that the remains of these souls were but the beginning of the horrors they were going to witness within the center of the hive.

What alerted them to the fact that there was more than meets the eye here was when a most horrid stench hit their nostrils. It was so foul that it made them cough and practically vomit as they realized just how strong of a smell it actually was; it was the terrible smell of death, the putrid odor of decaying flesh, and the closer they ebbed towards the honeycomb shaped frame that served as their cell’s entrance. They could feel their bodies struggling to keep themselves from churning back up the contents of their stomach, and it was nigh impossible for them to do so once they saw the full extent of where they had been taken to.

As they had already figured, they were within what was best described as a dungeon. They were on but one level of a cascading underground tower, with rectangular floor housing rows of cells as they ran downward for miles - well into what appeared to be yet another pitch black abyss of utter darkness. All of it being accented by pillars, platforms and general growths across each balcony, wall, floor and ceiling of what appeared to be a combination of paper or papyrus -like material with the general appearance of ruthlessly expanding fungal growths. That was the best way to possibly describe what the actual ‘hive’ renovations looked like. Speaking of which, during this horrible experience the only ambient sounds being heard were the buzzing of countless wings, and hisses from the beasts which lived here as they worked tirelessly to do what it was they felt needed to be done.

Of the floors that they could see lit by candles along the wall, the work being done was far from pretty.

Many of the unoccupied cells did not have their evidently retracting bars visible, and as such the contents of these small chambers were revealed.

Corpses. Fresh corpses. 

Hundreds, if not perhaps thousands or even millions.

Humans and anthros alike lay dead within the cells of the changeling hive, the vast majority of them either spread across the floor or sitting up against the damp, blood drenched walls. Their bodies pale and drained of blood, while their faces drained of any emotion; locked in cold numbness. Their bodies though being well torn asunder. What happened to their arms and legs varied from individual, though the constant seemed to be that their torsos were split clean open - their internal organs removed, more than likely having been devoured. This naturally not only blood but also scraps and pieces of these body parts strewn across the room; at times the creatures ate even the bones, at other times they seemed to settle for mere dismemberment.

It seemed to matter not who or what they were - there were just as many Bialyan citizens as there were ill-fated foreign soldiers. The only difference being that the former were often dressed in widely varying styles of civilian clothes, while the latter were in their combat uniforms. It would appear as though prisoners of war were quite a popular treat, or at least a relatively recent one, for the drones to enjoy. There were various soldiers, from troops of the United Federation to those of nearby nations with a more similar culture. It didn’t matter where they came from or what war they had been a part of anymore, as far as the changelings were concerned they were merely food.

Most popular by far however seemed to be the civilians of Bialya itself, who made up the bulk of the prisoner population. Men, women, perhaps in some dark recesses of the dungeon even children who did as little as get caught stealing. Many of the unfortunate women still had their hijabs worn over their heads, though it wasn’t unheard of to see a few who had holes and tears in the fabric of theirs - usually of course accompanied by large gaping holes in their heads. The men didn’t have traditionally unique clothing, save for some of them who had turbans on prior to their final demise - though in many cells could be seen husband laid out directly beside wife, though it was unclear which perished at which time. 

All of these victims had one thing in common: lack of emotion. All of them had the blankest of looks to their faces, to their eyes even, as they sat or laid there with their fate clear for all to see. Not even a grotesque smile of enjoyment or a single look of horror - merely complete numb neutrality in the face of such a horrific demise.

As if to add insult to injury, the changelings seemed to be taking the forms of the freshest victims - those who had been killed so recently that their bodies weren’t yet contributing to the grizzly odor of rot. It didn’t even seem as though their DNA was required for this process, as drones who merely passed by these cells at times performed the shifting. Where these individuals went off to was anyone’s guess, though whatever it was it no doubt was what her majesty demanded.

While this brought to immediate question as to what the purpose of sucking out DNA alongside the emotional capacity of any given victim was, though that question was one some would likely view as having likely answered itself upon being asked.

Even this was not all however, for what the two of them saw on more fresh bodies was that the gaping holes in their torso were filled with what first appeared to be pulsating tumors growing from inside of them - adding the sounds of disgusting squirms and squishes to the orchestra of wings, hisses and screeches echoing from both above and below. These were not actually tumors of course, as Oliver soon took notice of. He looked at the ceiling of each cell - including their own, and noticed there was a series of pipes and machinery at the top right in the center of the ceiling. It seemed to be a thin though long mechanical arm of sorts, albeit theirs was currently folded and inactive. It’s hand however seemed to be a clear glass tube tube - though it was one that was covered in and leaked small amounts of mucus-like slime onto the floor where they stood. Looking at this and then back at those unfortunate bodies with those growths inside of them drew out confusion - though upon closer, more focused inspection he could see within the bulbous growths what appeared to be the silhouettes of slug-like insect larvae churning inside of each individual tumorous growth. It was then that no questions needed to be asked.

“Dear fucking God....their eggs are _ inside _ of them…”

Rouge herself was holding back still a discharge of her stomach contents as well as tears from the horror she was seeing, shaking her head as she let out:

“What are these things?!”

Realizing what fate potentially had in store for them should they do nothing, Rouge and Oliver immediately made moves to break out of the cells they were in. However, with there not being any ventilation shafts to be seen, all they could do is desperately beat on the metallic bars. Rouge with her feet, Oliver with his bow.

However, filling the area with the sounds of their desperate clanging and thrashing against those iron bars was perhaps not the best move that the two could have made.

The sounds of the metallic bars being struck echoed throughout the dungeon and it’s many floors, and seeing as how active the area was it was a mere matter of time until they greeted with unpleasant company. Unfortunately for the two of them, that matter of time was only a meager amount of seconds.

While yes the bars of their cell vanished within mere seconds, disappearing right into the floor and ceiling - it was nigh immediately followed by the cruel arms of a Changeling whacking Oliver right into the wall behind him, the blonde man having so little time to react that all he could do is let out a shrill grunt as he impacted the stones with his back before sliding onto the floor.

With the the beast then proceeding to approach him as it screeched out it’s horrifying call, soon getting on top of him and preparing to yet again assault him with it’s second set of jaws, Oliver had little time to respond; however, he used his bow again this time jamming it in between the creature’s mandibles in order to prevent it from yet again latching onto him with his jaws. In the ensuing struggle as it tried to break through this defense and follow through with what it wanted to do, lunging it’s body toward him while using its claws to attempt stabbing and grabbing at his body. He could feel their sharp points piercing and cutting into his skin, though as painful as it was he had more than enough adrenaline pumping through him to continue fighting back, even rearing up his legs and pushing back by kicking at the creature’s ‘chest’ while keeping his bow sturdy as his only line of defense against its jaws.

As Oliver struggled for his life, Rouge was most unfortunately not able to immediately rush to his aid. As to be expected, there was more than merely one changeling attracted to the noises they had been making.

Rather than be instantly faced with one of them in their true appearance however, she was instead charged at by what appeared to be a clone of herself - which was of course to say one of the beasts having taken her form. There were at least four of them approaching her at once from what she could see, though she didn’t precisely have time to make sure there weren’t more; the only thing to be noticed was that these four ‘copies’ of her did not sport the same grayscale coloring as the ones from before and instead looked like Rouge herself without any flaws in their copying at all.

However, they could copy her body all they wanted - they couldn’t copy her experience.

They matched her skill level decently at first as they put her on the defensive with their attacks - clashing heels, fists and knees as she had to desperately block attacks from multiple directions; though they fought with next to no actual tactics - mostly settling for merely rushing at her and trying to mimic the martial arts kicks she did with her legs while also overwhelming her with superior numbers. Having had years of training both under herself and with G.U.N., this wasn’t precisely something she couldn’t handle. 

Once she had gotten over the initial shock of fighting ‘herself’ and had enough time for the adrenaline to pump through her veins, her heart beating fast as she could feel her back yet again up against the stone wall of the cell, the tables began to be turned.

Just as one of them tried to kick her in the head and the other her stomach, Rouge made a swift duck to the floor and did a low lying kangaroo kick to their shins - knocking of both of these opponents to the ground as she got back onto her feet on the other side of them. With those two on the ground, the third one attempted to fly in the air directly at Rouge. With the real one having been facing her however, she braced herself for this mood and with mere seconds to spare grabbed her doppelganger’s wrists and used the velocity of her flight to fling her directly towards the changeling that was harassing Oliver.

There was thankfully enough force in the impact to dislodge the changeling from it’s position, allowing Oliver a few moments to catch his breath. There was still hardly enough time for him or Rouge to converse though, as the archer’s focus was on grabbing his bow and launching an electric arrow at his aggressor before it could back on its feet again. His arrow landing directly into one of the creature’s eyes, it succeeded in generating not only an electrocute pulse but also making both the exposed changeling and the one disguised as Rouge emit ear piercing as they were shocked to their death.

“Maybe disarm me first, asshole” Oliver remarked as he watched the monster die, immediately turning his attention to the direction where he had last seen Rouge afterwards.

With the distraction that Oliver had provided by shooting one of the Changelings in the eye, Rogue picked this moment to strike and attack. Flaring her wings outwards she took to the air and moved to attack, moving to deliver a jump kick, clashing with Changeling's copy of herself before continuing her assault. Blocking and dodging the copy, Rogue retaliates with her own attacks, sending the copy skidding backwards. Not wanting to give it any chance of recovery she moved in to deliver a sweep toward her copies legs. When her copy moved to dodge she knew she had them, as she used her strength to push up and spun up in the air with her leg extended. Rogue delivers multiple spin kicks in a tornado-like fashion, trapping and bouncing them around in the vortex before knocking them back.

Landing on the ground, Rogue wasted no time in between her attacks. Cartwheeling multiple times in one jump, the female agents' legs became vertiabale fan blades as multiple kicks slammed into the copies of herself. Six. Eight. Ten. Twelve. Twelve rapid kicks with great succession and power all slammed into them knocking them back and sending them flying. 

However, one of the Changelings moved behind her in a blind spot and attempted to strike her form behind, this proved to be a mistake as Rogue’s ears twitched making her smirk as she spun around on her heel rotating completely around and swinging his leg up in a full spinning high kick that was followed up with a spinning side kick right to the chest sending it flying back and crashing into the wall, embedding itself right into it. 

“These ears of mine aren’t just for show, just so you know.” 

She taunted the Changeling, a coy smile gracing her face as she saw the tides of the battle were once more in her favor. Hearing another one coming, she smiled once more and this time performed a jumping, back kick. Her boot catching this one in the face, the changelings face rippling as it was sent spiraling through the air crashing head first into another one, two more tried to attack her from both sides but she had a plan for this. By supporting her body with her arm, Rouge swung her body to deliver a powerful spinning kick.

Managing to hit both of her targets, she easily sent the hapless changelings to the walls and onto their backs, giving her as much breathing room as the confined space allowed for.

However, there were certainly more where those had come from; for there was an entire hive’s worth of changelings for the duo to potentially fight through - especially if the countless buzzing and screeching echoing throughout the dungeon was anything to go by. It wasn’t long until more of them began arriving on the scene in droves - at least five of which were sporting Oliver’s form and even equipped with bows with arrows just like his, as well as a group of reinforcements that were sporting their true forms rather than utilizing any shifting.

Blocking the path out of the cell, the Oliver changelings opened their fire on the two prisoners immediately with a barrage of basic arrows, though they themselves remained still as they fired them out.

“Is that the best you got?!” Oliver exclaimed, making moves along with to evade the arrows through well experienced dodging maneuvers, even remarking “I can do so much better than that!”

After most narrowly avoiding the initial barrage of arrows, Oliver used their pause for reloading as a time to launch his own attack - firing at each of them a set of flame arrows which set the beasts on fire the moment impact with their bodies were made, successfully preventing them from firing their next arrows as well as reducing them to bodies of flame that were aimlessly running around, screaming their heads off before dropping and flailing on the floor. This in turn allowed a provision that allowed Rouge and Oliver to make their way past these ill-fated insects and out of their still open cell.

However, all they had really proven to the changelings is that as these two sported no serious meta powers, using their forms in overwhelming numbers were rather fruitless in combat. As such, the moment they were out of the cell they were facing the swarm of strictly base form changelings.

Seeing as how there were no stairs between the levels of the dungeon, Rouge had no choice but to grab Oliver by one of his hands and carry him into the air in an attempt to locate a way - any way at all - out of this terrible place. Having no choice but to fly into where the swarm was raging though, also meant having no choice but to be out in the open. 

As could honestly be expected, this left them easy pickings for such a massive swarm.

With one of his arms being occupied, held by Rouge, Oliver wasn’t able to use his bow or arrows as the swarm flew around them to and fro, buzzing and hissing madly until one of them swooped in for a direct hit - brandishing it’s stinger in an attempt to attack the spot where Rouge’s hands were holding up Oliver. Seeing this and not being fast enough to outfly it, Rouge panicked and released her grip from Oliver while flying up. 

While Oliver promptly fell down the chamber screaming, Rouge naturally had to immediately fly downward towards him after dodging that initial changeling. However, at least seven of them followed her down, their wings carrying them just as fast as her adrenaline boosted flight - if not faster if given enough time.

“Hang on, Ollie!” Rouge exclaimed as she reached a hand out towards the rapidly falling man, “I’ve got you!”

“You dropped me in the first place!” Oliver couldn’t help but reply with that as he fell down, saying it swiftly in between his screaming.

Rouge had come nearly a centimeter’s length away from grabbing Oliver’s hand when both of them were yanked away from each other - grabbed by changelings at a speed that they only narrowly avoided their necks snapping from the sudden whiplash. Though they struggled - kicking and thrashing away at the hellish insects that were holding them so firmly in the air, there was nothing they could do. They could feel serrated parts of their claws cutting into their skin, drawing blood with the might of their grips as other changelings began to fly towards them, sadistically grabbing hold of their arms and legs; at first to seemingly stop the pair from struggling anymore, though once it appeared as though the creatures were beginning to instead stretch the pair out by their arms and legs instead it became all too clear what they were trying to do.

As Rouge and Oliver screamed in their grasp, feeling immense pain as they fought back against what it was these monsters were trying to do, it had become apparent that their lack of meta powers and escape attempt made them be viewed as a lability by their captors - who know wanted to as such, dispose of them.

Feeling the harsh sensation of their muscles and even bones being stretched out about as far they could, all while their wretched screeching blared so painfully into their ears. Rouge and Oliver the whole time could do nothing but holler and cry out in agony - knowing exactly what was soon going to happen. 

It was only a matter of time, a short one at that.

Though the wait was ultimately not for what they had fearfully been expecting:

First it was a crashing boom from far below, but like a complete and utter defiance of fate itself it swiftly evolved into all of the changelings holding Rouge and Oliver bursting to pieces as a group of homing laser shots struck them directly in their torsos - exploding them from the center of their bodies. This of course did send Rouge and Oliver yet again falling down the steep shaft of the chamber, though with a vast hail of missiles and gunfire from below now serving as cover she was easily able to use her wings to catch herself; then of course swiftly diving downward to save Oliver from his own freefall.

Descending onto what was the nearest floor for them to land on, the two immediately took to the railing, looking down to try seeing what or who exactly had come to their aid.

At first, all they could see was the barrage of bullets, laser shots and missiles flowing out from the black abyss above - it being too dark for them to witness the source of these firearms. Within a short few moments though, a familiar red robot sprang up from the darkness while discharging a barrage of homing rockets at several of the thousands of changelings flying and screeching around the scene, all while soon after shifting his arms back to their base state so that he could use his hands to grab hold of the two changelings which latched onto him - pulling them off of his metallic body before violently swirling his torso around 180 degrees as he sent them off to the wall; shifting his hands back to weapons he finished them off with a round of explosive rounds directly to their chests.

Oliver and Rouge gained faces of complete relief as they witnessed Omega successfully laying waste to the changeling horde, with Oliver even remarking:

“About time the cavalry showed up!”

Rouge also called out to Omega; “Destroy all of them, Omega!” to which the robot quickly replied:

“Affirmative!” right as he punched a changeling that tried to sneak up on him, grabbing it as it descended and using it like an aerial bowling ball to slam both it and another one into the chamber walls before deploying twin rounds of ballistic cannon shots to swiftly dispose of them. “All changelings must be annihilated!”

As Omega continued to lay waste to the swarm from the center of the hive chamber, it was all too easy for Rouge and Oliver to forget just how many changelings there were. It was true that Omega was powerful enough to so easily dispose of them, though the two of themselves weren’t precisely built to deal with them; as such, when a group of four arrived from behind them in a surprise attack amidst the chaos, it not only caught them off guard but also left them with not much they could do besides Oliver priming his arrow as Rouge prepared for another hard battle.

While Oliver did indeed launch a few arrows towards them, this time his arrows were not quite effective as they managed to slap them away just as fast as he fired them - defiantly screeching at the archer as they did so. 

“Of course” he remarked sadly, “They’re capable of learning.”

With the monsters continuing to approach them, the two were increasingly unsure of what they could do. That was, until a few shots from Omega’s ballistic cannons reduced them to splattering pieces coated with the smoke and dust of accompanying explosions. With the robot proceeding to make his landing right before the two of them, finally they yet again could let out sighs of relief.

“Thanks, Omega!” Rouge replied, a smile yet again on her face. Omega though, gave a response that confused her.

“Get down.”

“Huh?”

“Get down.”

Rouge and Oliver, in their moment of confusion, turned around to notice that a group of twenty if not even fifty changelings were charging the three of them at once - all of them screeching with extreme ferocity as their wings buzzed ever so viciously. Knowing now what Omega had meant, the two of them immediately ducked to the ground - allowing Omega to unleash a torrent of fire from the barrels of his arms, having shifted them into flamethrowers more than capable of spewing out enough flame to not only illuminate his vicinity with the orange-red light of the roaring fire while lighting up both the entire charging group and any more changelings who decided it was a good idea to join in on the effort - all of them being charred to the color of black ash before dropping what was perhaps several hundred feet down into the abyss below.

While looking at the changeling horde practically throwing itself at Omega’s ‘wall’ of flame was certainly satisfying after all they had experienced, there was still a certain point which prompted Rouge to exclaim aloud:

“So when and how are we going to get out of here, exactly?!”

Without saying a single word, Omega deactivated one of his flamethrowers so that he could aim that arm as a laser cannon at one of the walls. After a scan of the walls themselves, he fired a single zeta energy blast at the wall - Rouge and Oliver shielding their eyes as the bright light was soon all they could see. Once the dust and rubble cleared, the two could see that the laser beam had successfully exposed a hallway that had been situated behind the wall - one which extended out. Though he was still fixated on setting fire to the swarm, Omega directed his speaking at Rouge and Oliver:

“Rouge, Oliver. You two go first, I will follow.”

Nodding in agreement with his plan, Rouge and Oliver proceeded to make a dash directly for the now exposed hall - covered from any following changelings by both Oliver’s arrows and by Omega using his free arm for ballistic cannon shots again while the other remained maintaining the fire at least until he confirmed the other two were out of the hive chamber. 

With Rouge and Omega having finally gotten out of the hive, Omega deactivated his flamethrowers and made his own mad dash for where they were. As fast as he was, the changelings were more than able to keep up with him as they very rapidly formed a nightmarish cloud of at least a few hundred that charged at the robot and his two organic partners.

Omega had been ready for this though, turning his torso around as he used his propulsion systems to continue rushing towards Oliver and Rouge as he aimed his weapons not at the crowd of screaming, howling insects but instead at the ceiling above them. With not much time to spare he let loose a barrage of ballistic cannon shots and missiles alike at the ceiling, destabilizing it within a short matter of seconds. As it began to rapidly collapse down onto both the changelings and the floor around him, Omega tactically shot a missile blast at the ground beneath him while also initiating a jump to give himself just enough enough additionally propulsion to reach Oliver & Rouge before the mess of debris, rubble and dust had fallen onto him. 

As the sound of falling stone as well as the aforementioned clouds of dust died down along with the sound of the raging changelings, Rouge and Oliver were finally able to catch their breaths as an overwhelming sensation of relief took them over:

“Oh thank  _ God _ !” Oliver loudly exclaimed after a deep breath, “We would’ve been goners if it wasn’t for you back there, tin man!”

“Yeah!” Rouge said between her own pants and huffs, “You really were a savior back there, Omega.”

“It was my immediate top priority to rescue you” Omega answered back as his own way of saying ‘no problem’, “No member of Team Dark will be left behind.”

“Speaking of which” Rouge interjected, suddenly remembering a certain black hedgehog who had ran off on his own some time ago, “We still need to regroup with Shadow and get the hell out of here!”

“With the path leading back the way we arrived being not viable even if it was not sealed off” Omega responded while gesturing towards the collapsed path leading into the hive chamber, “There is only one viable way to travel along.” - and with that he was of course gesturing towards the hallway they were currently in, which headed out in only one direction; that of course being straight ahead of them.

“Well” Oliver commented, “Seeing as how our options are either yes or yes…”

There wasn’t precisely any disagreeing with Oliver’s statement, instead they got around immediately to doing rather than talking. Racing down the candle-lit stone hall, the group of what was now yet again three could only hope that they would by chance happen upon Shadow. Preferably of course the real Shadow rather than yet another horrifying pretender. 

Luckily for the trio, their nightmare was in fact ending.

Without any way to openly check what time it was, the trio did not precisely know how long their trek down the hallway actually took. It could have been anywhere from merely a few minutes to at the most an hour.

Either way they soon reached a crossroads, as to their right was a tall flight of wide, stone stairs that led to a chamber they could not yet see. To their left was a similar set of steps heading downward, and ahead of them was merely a continuation of the hall they were already in. Left with the challenge of deciding which pathway to take, Rouge and Oliver ultimately yet again turned to Omega as Rouge herself said to him:

“Which way should we go, Omega?”

Stopping in the center of this crossroads, Omega took the time to carefully look around all that there was to see - scanning the area to see what was the most viable path to continue down along. The scan itself did not take very long at all, though what Omega was originally going to announce was interrupted ahead of time by something he deemed more pertinent, especially seeing as how immediately before he picked up on it there was the echoing sound of another chamber of the ruins collapsing in on itself, almost as though there was yet another swarm which had to be stopped:

“Emergency; two lifeforms rapidly approaching. Vital scenes do not match those of changelings, though identity can still not yet be confirmed.”

WIthout needing any further explanation, Rouge and Oliver prepared for what was potentially yet another battle for the three of them. Omega himself also prepared his weapon systems as the two lifeform signatures approached ever rapidly, though once these two figures came into view on the other end of the hallway it was seen well that one of them was Shadow himself. However, the other one immediately beside him was Barda. Having not witnessed the confession of Barda’s true intention, her presence was the reason the trio did not leave their battle stances so swiftly - and in fact they were confused as to why Shadow wasn’t trying to destroy her as they approached.

Already taking aim with his arms shifting to gatling guns, Omega made his point clear as the two stopped right in front of them:

“Shadow, clear the area, preparing to annihilate the enemy.”

“Omega, stand down!” Shadow swiftly exclaimed as she stood between both Barda and Omega, “Barda is with us!”

“Um...excuse me?” Rouge replied, “Since when?”

Barda, with a sharp tongue, was quick to speak for herself:

“Since Mephiles tossed my first love into another dimension and had Granny Goodness torture me until I was deemed obedient enough to resume my leadership of the Furies.”

With how serious her tone of voice was, it was enough to - albeit a bit awkwardly, making Rouge, Oliver and Omega get out of their battle formations. It definitely got the point across, though none of them at first had any idea of how to respond; Oliver could only let out of his mouth a most awkwardly delivered:

“Oh….well, welcome to the team then, I guess.”

“I’m not expecting any of you to trust me entirely so quickly” Barda admitted with a sigh, “But we really don’t have the time to deal with that right now” she then pointed to the elongated stairway to the left, heading downwards into what appeared to be a black abyss alit only by slowly dimming candles, “Mephiles and his elite are having their meeting this way, follow me!”

With Barda taking off down the stairs into the darkness they led to, the rest of the team looked to each other silently, exchanging nods before agreeing that following her was the best option - all five knowing well that after this point, there was no turning back.

* * *

The room in which the dark lord and all of his elite were to meet within was, as one might expect, quite the large chamber - in fact, it was by far the largest chamber in all of the underground complex beneath the Bialyan palace, justifying it’s position so many miles below the surface. 

The chamber itself was in the shape of a crude rectangle, though as it was carved out of the natural ground itself the supposed shape was far from perfected. Regardless, the chamber itself was still massive, with it’s inside being both large and wide enough to support an entire colosseum and then some within its walls. From these ‘walls’ of rock and earth poured small waterfalls of pure groundwater, descending along the numerous cracks and crevices for miles into an abyss of pitch blackness until they reached a deep pool of even more water that was concealed by the very same darkness. In the middle of this pool, turning it into a moat of sorts, stood a tall and wide pillar of rock that brought things all the way back up to the ‘top’ level of the chamber, with a floor of sandstone leveling the top of this platform to an almost perfect flatness - only ‘almost’ because some of the bricks were quite old and slowly becoming loosened with the passage of time.

Level with this platform, the stone door used to enter this chamber rested on the other side of the moat to the north, though there was no matching structure on the south. To make up for this however were the various green crystals which extended from the cavernous walls - supplying the entire chamber with an otherworldly emerald green light from top to bottom.

It was in the middle of this room that Mephiles and all of his elite were situated, with the latter themselves all kneeling before the former as he stood before their eyes. Mephiles’ own eyes were fixated first and foremost on the chaos emeralds, as now he had not only the purple chaos emerald still in his clutches but he now had the red, yellow, white and turquoise emeralds as well. With his face ever locked in that sinister blank, mouthless appearance he silently gazed at each of the five mighty gems. All of them orbiting around him in a tranquil yet uneasy silence before with the speed of a finger snap he had them sent to parts yet unknown with but a single swiftly passing flash of bright light. Once he had the emeralds secured in a location he figured to be safe for what he needed them for, he directed his attention to his elite who remained on the ground below him:

Of the sixteen people kneeling before him, at least nine of them made up those whom Mephiles considered his actual elite. Granny Goodness and the Queen of Bialya were of course givens - both of them having freshly arrived from their walk through the palace grounds so far above. The rest of the group however were faces that had been kept hidden from Mephiles’ greatest enemies until this moment.

Sinestro was one of the most immediately noticeable of the elite, being a muscular red-skinned six foot humanoid with black, slicked hair, pointed ears and a thin mustache across his upper lips as well as the wearer of a notably golden yellow-jet black suit, though his suit was really there because of the yellow ring of the sinestro corps he wore on his right ring finger. It’s symbol was the very symbol that was along the chest of his matching suit, and it denoted his status as the leader of the yellow lanterns.

Kalibak and Grayven meanwhile were not as brightly colored as Sinestro was, though they made their presence known nonetheless. Though Kalibak was the elder of the brothers, he was shorter due to his more hunched posture - going along well with his very caveman-like appearance, complete with both a thick black beard and matching long hair draping from his head. Grayven on the other hand was notable for having darker, almost charcoal colored skin accompanied by a head of flowing white hair extending from the back of his head. His armor suit - which exposed not only his dark grey arms but also his toned torso as well, was mostly black with accents of gold, sporting glowing red lights on his waist, chest and forehead. It also should be said now that both of them were far taller in comparison to the others in the room, with both of them being approximately seven feet tall.

Gordon Godfrey was seemingly a typical human man, even dressed in a black business suit complete with a tie and well polished shoes. However, evidently that was but a facade. His appearance beyond that was hardly anything notable either - caucasian skin, brown eyes, a brunette goatee across his chin with a connecting mustache, and slicked back brown hair. If not for the fact he was kneeling before Mephiles, he would come off as a typical human man.

Blackfire, known in her native tongue as Komand’r, was a slim, peak condition tamaranean woman of six feet in height - her skin notable for being orange in color with eyes which glowed emerald green, opposite her hair which was an incredibly dark shade of red which in certain lighting was practically black. Her outfit meanwhile was defined by being predominantly a skin tight black suit with heeled boots of glistening silver, with ornate silver armor across her forearms and chest, a black cape draped over her shoulders. She even had a diadem worn across her forehead, also of a silver color which reflected well any light that reflected off of it.

Last though not least was a figure that was not physically present in the chamber, though instead was being presented via a hologram projected by Blue Beetle’s eyes. Though true that this figure was presented to everyone in the chamber as a translucent hologram, he was still perfectly visible nonetheless. 

This figure highly resembled a robotic version of Sonic, though was far more imposing than previously seen models. His body was elongated out to a whopping seven feet tall, and all of the ‘quills’ along the back of his head were completely straightened, sharpened like the most deadly of knives. His body was designed overall to be sleek, designed for fast-paced yet brutal combat, with his slim arms ending in gauntlet-like forearms, just as his feet did - ending in red triangular chunks resembling Sonic’s shoes, though his shins up to his knees were constructed with thick metallic plating giving the appearance of slow moving yet most durable armor. He sported a singular, visor like eye which was black with only a single yellow light in the center; last but not least and in fact perhaps most importantly, was the fact that from his shoulder guards extended two lengthy beetle like pincers, themselves extending from an extensive scarab beetle shaped section of his back, matter of fact it essentially was his back and even included an ornate cape draping down from beneath it.

Behind them all were the remaining female furies - Stompa, Lashina, Mad Harriet and Gilotina; all of them joining the elite in respectfully kneeling before their overlord as he relished in what he suspected to be his moment of triumph. They were also joined by two other female figures, one of them being the Raven from before who though was also kneeling with all of the others, her face was notably more blank and emotionless than it had ever been before. The other was unfortunately a thrall, and though grayscale still could be seen to be sporting a head of shoulder length hair, and wore a bright top with a dark ‘x’ across her chest and torso, it being accompanied by a darker colored cape, small heeled boots, and gloves.

With the silent roll call of his elite, the furies, and select apprentices being complete, Mephiles didn’t waste any more time in addressing his subordinates:

“I am pleased with your work, my lessers” he said, “I now only have two chaos emeralds yet to acquire; it is now only a matter of time before I have them all.”

“Of course, my lord” the Queen of Bialya said, bowing her head still with all of the others, “Your will shall be done.”

“Now” Mephiles continued on to say, scanning his eyes over all of his followers, “How are things going in regards to the rest of my plans?”

“The fleets have successfully annihilated most resistance throughout the universe” the mechanical Grand Intelligence of the Reach spoke in his deep, synthetic voice, “With the additions to the labor force and harvesting of these resources, we shall be more than capable of sustaining fleets more than capable of conquering and maintaining control over the multiverse, as your will commands.”

“Excellent” Mephiles replied, nodding his head with a slight sinister laugh, “And I presume the current expedition is going along smoothly?”

“Of course, your eminence.”

“That is what I like to hear” and with that having been said, Mephiles promptly turned his attention to Sinestro, “And how are things going on your end, Sinestro?”

“They are going to according to plan, my lord” Sinestro remarked with a look of dark pride to his face, “With how strong fear has become between both this timeline and the last, my corps have become one of the most strongest forces the universe has ever known, their efficiency in maintaining your empire knows no bounds nor any rivals; in fact, my latest apprentice has already been clamoring to someday maintain this sector in your name as I do Korugar.”

“And the greater army?”

“Much the same” Sinestro answered his ‘God’, “The latest set of graduates from the Azarath Orphanage have been quite impressive, even more vicious than the previous year.”

“Don’t take all the credit, Sinestro” Goodness couldn’t help but interject with a proud smirk of her own, “I’m the one who  _ educates _ those children.”

“Duly noted, Granny” Sinestro responded in a most cavalier attitude, though right after his three words Mephiles was swift with bringing the attention back to himself:

“Do keep in mind that both the trainees and the graduated warriors are to be obedient to  _ me _ above anyone else, including yourselves.”

“Of course, your eminence.” - both Goodness and Sinestro made sure to bow their heads to the floor beneath them, speaking their words in unison with one another. Mephiles in response nodded, approving of their obedience as his attention yet again motioned to some of his 

remaining subordinates.

“Blackfire” he said, gesturing a hand briefly towards her, “What would your status report happen to be?”

  
  


“With the Apokoliptian tech upgrade, Tamaran has been more powerful and prosperous than it ever has - especially under my predecessors if I don’t say so myself” Komand’r simply couldn’t seem to help herself on that end, “Administering the day-to-day running of an intergalactic empire really isn’t as difficult as people make it out to be.”

“Though the honorable Blackfire does remember who is to be governess of New Apokolips, does she not?” - that callous remark of course, came from the Queen of Bialya, who’s passive aggressive tone was laced with obvious envy. Komand’r however, merely chuckled it off and snarked:

“You’re doing this right now, Talia?” she responded immediately, “I would just like to remind you that I was the one who took my crown by force and kept it; I recall you losing control of your League of Assassins if i’m not mistaken.”

Talia, Queen of Bialya, wasn’t one to stand for such an insult. Especially one made to her in front of His Eminence. Gritting her teeth in a growl, she angrily hissed at Komand’r as she responded with a tone just as fired up:

“I only lost the League of Assassins because of a few traitors, had I acted sooner I would have kept it all!”

“And yet that’s not what happened, is it?” Komand’r replied with a smirk, irritating Talia even more. With her eyes turning a monotone green as well as practically insectoid as she let out another enraged hiss, Mephiles finally had enough of their argument and nipped it in the bud by booming out:

“Silence!”

Both of the two women immediately looked towards him and bowed their heads, with Talia herself being the first to say:

“Apologies, your eminence, but-”

“There will be no ‘buts’” Mephiles interrupted, cupping his hands behind his back, “If you insist on disagreeing with that, perhaps I will more strongly consider removing you from my inner circle. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly, your eminence.”

“And Komand’r” Mephiles’ eyes coldly yet emotionlessly turned towards the Tamaranean ruler, who for once was genuinely intimidated, “While I sought you out specifically for your leadership capabilities and have decreed that you are to be one of my growing empire’s supreme Governesses, I have decreed the same for Talia; and I have no intention of changing the decree she is to govern what is to be New Apokolips. Any further objections to my decisions shall be seen as insubordination against me. With that said, I presume there will be no further objections?”

“No, your eminence” Komand’r made sure to respond in much the same manner as Talia, as degrading it was for the both of them, “There will not.”

“As I expect.”

Though there was a moment of silence between the group, in truth it was because Mephiles’ attention had been drawn to the sole thrall present within the chamber. The young woman’s head perked up as she delivered a telepathic message to the dark lord - by the time the others looked up at his mouthless face and saw the silent conversation going on, they were forced to ponder not only what was going on but also what their overlord thought of it. Grayven and Kalibak, for instance, looked to each other before back at Mephiles - Kalibak being the first of them to speak up:

“Father?” he asked, “What is the martian girl telling you?”

Breaking the psychic discussion between thrall and master, Mephiles turned to his ‘son’ and answered him:

“It appears that Shadow has managed to follow after us after all; approaching this chamber even as we speak.”

The group aside from the ‘martian girl’ and Raven were rather surprised to hear those words from the dark lord. Talia in particular seemed to be the most shocked of all, in a dumbfounded tone she found herself exclaiming:

“They managed to break through the swarm? How?!”

“It is no matter, Talia” Mephiles silenced her into an uneasy calm by holding out a hand as he himself began shifting his own tone to that of most malicious joy, “His and the rest of his team’s survival actually plays into my hand. I shall give him but one final offer to fulfill his destiny and obey my will, otherwise I shall kill him and take his emerald for myself.”

“Do the rest of us get a front row seat for the conflict, then?” Godfrey spoke up, perking a brow up in curiosity, only for Mephiles to answer swiftly:

“No” the dark lord bluntly said as he yet again put his hands again behind his back, “This shall be strictly between me and my children. The rest of you will be returning to your prior posts; I will however insist that the Furies remain, for a reason that is sure to entertain you all.”

“Understood, your eminence.”

With a final bow of their heads, the rest of the elite took their leaves from the chamber via boom tubes from their own mother boxes - or in the Grand Admiral’s case simply having his hologram deactivated, with Blue Beetle being the one to leave via boom tube. One by one the gaggle of Mephiles’ cohorts left until the only ones left besides the dark lord himself were Raven, Kalibak and Grayven. The Furies as well, though they were leaving the massive room with sadistic grins on their faces while preparing their weapons for battle, not even needing to be told anything more.

As Mephiles turned around to have his back facing his children, his eyes fixating aimlessly on the cavern wall now before him as he waited his coming fight, his three offspring approached him. The only ones who seemed to have something on their mind were the sons, Kalibak and Grayven, with Raven notably having her own aimless stare. Yet again, it was Kalibak who spoke first of the two:

“Father, may I ask something?”

“What is it, Kalibak?”

“Why are you giving that hedgehog  _ another _ chance to obey you?” the son of Darkseid questioned bluntly, “Why not just kill him where he stands?! I’ll do it myself if you wish it, I will gladly put that rat in his proper place!”

Without turning to look his ‘son’ in the eyes at all, Mephiles responded with a question of his own, after but a slight bout of laughter:

“Are you jealous that Shadow is potentially stealing your birthright, Kalibak?”

“Me? Jealous? Of a _ rat _ ?!” Kalibak was taken aback and perhaps embarrassed by his father’s insinuation, and was swift to deny it, “Of course not, father! I’m merely concerned-”

“You need not be, my son” Mephiles spoke calmly, “Rest assured that you retain a significant role in my plans; but Shadow was created for a significant role of his own, he simply hasn’t been broken into it quite yet. But as with all things, he soon will be. If not, then my score with him shall be settled here soon enough.”

“But father” Grayven spoke up, less confrontational than his brother though still showing some internal discontentment of his own, “What will be your will should Shadow decide to obey?”

“Shadow is the ultimate lifeform, created to serve New Apokolips as it’s ultimate warrior as well as the ultimate son of Solaris. His reserved position within my inner circle is paramount, should he choose to finally obey. Now, I will hear no more of these questions until he arrives, is that understood?”

Bowing his head in silence along with Kalibak, Grayven only let out a defeated:

“Yes, father…” though as the younger brother’s voice trailed off, both him and Kalibak turned their heads towards the entrance door to the chamber, now closed, with the looks on their faces shifting to furious glares - their fists even clenching as they had no choice but to patiently wait for their ‘brother’ to make his way onto the scene.

* * *

Having to descend what had to be a good mile or so worth of stone stairs was not a task that any mere mortal would have taken on, and truth be told Oliver was well out of breath the moment his legs were finally on ground that was leveled rather than descending - but nevertheless he and the members of ‘Team Dark’ with Barda included all made it in one piece. The archer would not receive much time at all to catch his breath however, as immediately after reaching the end of the stairway did he overhear Barda’s voice call out to the group:

“This way!”

Oliver couldn’t help but let out a groan, ‘filing’ his complaint to himself:

“Us heroes really do never get any rest at all.”

The next chamber that awaited Oliver, Shadow, Rouge, Omega and Barda was another elongated hall way, with tall walls which were lined with pillars attached to the wall as to give them curved indentations throughout their length, much like how the ceiling of this hall was also of a curved styling. The chamber itself was nothing special, as with the rest of the underground complex it was constructed almost entirely out of sandstone as well as the earth - an impressive feat though one that by now they have seen plenty of. Besides the flat ramp that they used to enter the hallway proper, the only other noteworthy details they took note of was the fact the hall itself took a sharp 90 degree turn to the left with piles of sand gathering in the corners. The rest of the hall beyond the turn was a straight path directly to a door on the right; the only thing they had to watch out for were sporadically placed pits throughout the path, alternating between the left side and right side of their way to the exit door. Seeing as how none of the group were blind, these abysses of darkness were easy enough to avoid. However, remembering their run-ins with changelings they made sure to not waste their time waiting to see what might arrive from within said darkness.

The door at the end was also just as much barely an obstacle for the group - a single blast of a missile from Omega reduced it to a pile of rubble and dust within a matter of mere seconds.

As Shadow, Omega, Rouge and Oliver walked into the succeeding chamber just as the cloud of dust cleared, Barda’s attention was pulled to something else. A line of weapons strewn across one of the walls - Apokoliptian weapons. Swords, scythes, daggers, whips, even shurikens. But more importantly to her - spears. Just like the one she had lost in her fight against Shadow. Staring at but one of attentively, she wasted no more time before equipping herself with one of them before following after the rest of the group - she knew well it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to the enemies they would be facing.

She also needed a replacement spear anyway; and unbeknownst to her would be needing it even sooner than she already anticipated.

The next chamber of the complex was the penultimate one - as shown by the fact it was little more than extremely long, foreboding hall lined with aged stone floors, yet another round of curved ceilings, and with massive columns extending from the beginning of the hall right to the twelve foot flight of stairs leading to the exist. The ceiling in this chamber though was more than high enough to create a dark abyss of shadows and darkness up above rather than below, escaping the reach of the repeated candles that typically illuminate the underground temple. Taking note of this, the group treaded carefully as they did not want to yet again be ambushed - and it could be felt the presence of another living being that was presumably not aligned with them. However, the lack of any buzzing or screeching was an at least slightly relieving sign.

That is, until the attack from above was launched.

From the shadows of the ceiling above was fired at them a series of blinking, ticking explosives at such a speed that by the time they saw the circle around them they hardly had any time to brace for their detonation at all. Once those explosions came, not only were the group all sent back from the resulting explosions while soon surrounded by yet another tall cloud of rubble and dust - but they also had to avoid a hail of gunfire from a pair of pistols as their wielder spiraled to the ground towards them, landing in the center in utter silence before his form was revealed to be the enthralled young man from before; metallic mask over his head, with an armored bodysuit that sported a bat symbol along the chest, exposed by the open leather jacket he was wearing.

As with all thralls, he remained silent - though was clearly one of the more deadly ones as he gave the group hardly any recovery time.

The first one that he singled out was Oliver, who retaliated to the figure by engaging him via a barrage of arrows. The thrall managed to avoid these shots however, and via expert maneuvering got up close and personal with the archer. Though Oliver was no push-over in hand-to-hand combat and was equipped with his bow to use, this figure was much the same and fought with such ruthless vigor that it was only after a few exchanges of blows that the figure pulled out a knife and nearly sliced open Oliver’s throat with a particularly close swing of his arm. Oliver managed to narrowly evade it though, slipping himself behind his opponent - only to find this enthralled figure’s reflexes were faster than his, finding himself kicked directly to the ground mere seconds later.

Before he could deliver any sort of fatal blow to Green Arrow though, he was hit in the back by Shadow ramming into him in his ball form; more than enough force to send this enthralled human through one of the tall pillars, ramming directly into the wall behind it - creating a crater upon impact.

It was thanks to that bodysuit and it’s armor that he was able to survive such a crushing blow, though it wasn’t quite enough to knock him out of his enthrallment just yet. As such, once he recovered he immediately ran along the side of the walls to evade a barrage of Shadow’s chaos spears that were accompanied by gatling gun rounds courtesy of Omega. However impressive his parkouring talent was, it didn’t change the fact that Shadow and Omega were merely leading him directly into Barda who was charging at him with her newly acquired spear brandished alongside her shield, though once they collided the thrall was more than capable of simply leaping in the air and flipping himself behind her, and from there leaping again into the air once she took a swipe at him again. While in the air he launched another handheld explosive at her, and with a single shot from one of his pistols he detonated it - causing the two pillars which had been between them to collapse onto Barda while himself got out of their crumbling path.

Of course Barda was fine even under the dust and debris of the fallen pillars, though she was still temporarily out of the battle while she was busy pulling herself out from beneath.

Fresh after landing on the ground as the cloud of dust was just settling, the figure was yet again charged at by Shadow - this time by the propulsion of his shoe’s boosters. Once they clashed, the thrall was surprisingly capable of holding his own against Shadow - albeit he had to spend most of his time dodging skillfully every punch that Shadow launched at him; this tit for tat exchange between the two would have persisted for longer had it not been for Omega launching two rockets directly at where the two were, prompting Shadow to swiftly use the green chaos emerald to chaos control out of their path. The rockets would ultimately not hit their target however, even though it would appear from their combined explosion that they did. In reality though, a couple of well timed grenades were enough to trigger the explosion - with the ensuing cloud of smoke and flame more than enough for the thrall to us as cover as he leaped high into the air - launching from his position a series of what first appeared to be small metallic balls at Omega, though just as Omega shifted his weapons back into twin gatling guns they began emitting electro-magnetic pulses and electrical surges that were successful in disrupting Omega’s functionality, forcing Omega to begin becoming unstable as he exclaimed:

“SYSTEM ERROR; OPERATING SYSTEMS MALFUNCTIONING; ENFORCING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN; WILL RESTART ONCE DISTURBANCE HAS CEASED!”

With that having been said, Omega proceeded to shut down, collapsing to the ground with a metallic thud. Though the electric disturbances given off by the devices did cease not long after he was ‘taken care of’, signaling that his restart would start fortunately soon, it didn’t do anything to mitigate Shadow’s rage at all. Growling at his enemy, Shadow yet again entered his ball form and sent himself along the floor directly at the enthralled foe of his the moment he landed - only for him to leap into the air again while brandishing his twin pistols to release from them a hail of gunfire at the speeding black ball before his eyes.

The bullets themselves of course were not at all a concern to Shadow, as he was practically impervious to them, though they were still a sign of effort nonetheless as the ultimate lifeform found himself reaching the wall on the other end of the room - exiting his ball state and using his feet to propel himself directly at his opponent with fists clenched ever tightly, eyes locked in a most deadly glare. 

However, though his punch was prepared for this foe’s face it ultimately would be denied it’s strike. Mere moments from impact the figure vanished in a sudden cloud of smoke, catching Shadow off guard as he landed on the other side of it without striking this opponent of his at all. As he furiously turned to look back at the smoke cloud, he could see the unharmed form of his foe taking shape, standing now in front of him while taking aim with his twin pistols. 

With Barda, Oliver and Omega beginning to recover from the setbacks this Thrall had created, it was swiftly appearing as though this battle was soon to take a turn in the favor of Team Dark. While that sentiment was true, it did not go about quite as anyone in the chamber expected. 

Before he even had a chance to pull the trigger at any of his opponents, Rouge dropped from the darkness of the ceiling and with a kick from both of her feet managed to disrupt his aim - instead the bullets made their collision with the stone floor. Of course he made motions to retaliate, though Rouge’s own movements were far too quick for him - within mere seconds she jabbed with her hands a solid majority of his pressure points across his body, before kneeing him right in the face while she was still suspended in the air with her wings. 

Landing on his back, it was with a pained groan that the signs of his enthrallment ended - that is to say that his proper coloring faded back into being. The bat symbol as well as the mask over his head turned a glistening shade of blood red; while the bodysuit he was wearing remained seemingly unchanged as it turned out to already be majority black with a side of gray, even the pants. The leather jacket he wore was more of a brown color, however. 

Getting confirmation that he was a thrall rather than a changeling, the group stood down their arms once he was restored from Mephiles’ control though caution was still of course exercised. 

Continuing his groaning as he held his head, shaking it as he snapped back to reality, he was quick to take notice of the two anthro creatures, one robot, one female New God, and one male human archer all standing before him. Scanning his eyes across them, all he could utter was a confused:

“What the _ fuck _ ….”

“Welcome to the twilight zone” Oliver remarked, “Happy to meet your acquaintance.”

“I’m going to assume that you’re one of Mephiles’ so-called ‘thralls’..” Shadow said, still looking upon this young man with caution, “Or were.”

“If that’s what you call bullshit mind control, then yeah” the man nodded, “Also, name’s Red Hood, before that’s the next thing you ask.”

“Hmph.”

“As much as I’d love to stay and chat” Barda remarked, “We should get going if we want to catch Mephiles and his elite before they take their leave.”

“If that means I get to shoot Queenie in the face” Red Hood said while reloading his pistols, “Count me in.”

With an exchange of nods between the group of what was now six, make their run for the exit door of the hall they were in. However, they ultimately wouldn’t be able to exit this chamber just yet for their advancement was stopped not long after it started; they halted their movements upon noticing the stone door was opening seemingly on it’s own accord, revealing a large cylindrical chamber that descended downward, spiraling for what was an unfathomable amount of feet before reaching the entrance to where the dark lord himself remained waiting.

Ascending from the reaches of this chamber of course was the group known to the group by now as the Female Furies - now led by Gilotina as Stompa, Lashina and Mad Harriet followed right after her as they all made their way into the room, confident if not sadistic smirks across all of their faces; or in Mad Harriet’s case a near psychotic grin. As these women of Old Apokolips faced them as they stood in the center of the hall, the six wasted no time in preparing for the inevitable clash; though this moment as always was not without it’s pre-battle banter, as Barda remarked as they all made sure their weapons were primed and ready for what was to come:

“Well well, the gang’s all here.”

“You really shouldn’t have turned traitor, Barda” Gilotina mocked while brandishing her blades, smirking as she remarked “Although personally, I look forward to watching you  _ die _ .”

“I’d tell you to go to hell, Gilotina” Barda snarked back, “But I feel as though that’d be redundant.”

As Gilotina’s smirk shifted into an angered scowl, a moment of silence overtook the ten of them as both parties stared each other down, seemingly waiting for the other to make the first move. Watching attentively at her foes, Barda as the one who trained them knew well what their tactics would be and said as such to her current teammates:

“They’ll go for position, try to separate us.”

“Hmph” Shadow scoffed, “Let them try.”

Without any further words, the Furies launched their attack and charged at the six. The battle commenced.

With all four of the remaining Female Furies charging at them with the most sadistic looks on their faces, there wasn’t a whole lot of time for any of the six to react. True to Barda’s warning, they did indeed seem to be operating with a certain strategy in mind; 

Mad Harriet and Stompa moved, using their own speed to make a mad dash right towards Shadow, Barda and Rouge, moving past the other to try and over power the two of them. 

Lashina struck quickly, her lashes coiling around through the air like wild pit vipers as she lashed out at Oliver and Omega, both the Robot and the human moving to avoid being hit by the whip like weapon, though Oliver was forced to jump back once more to avoid getting his head lopped off by Gilotina as the sword using Fury was looking at him with a mad grin on her face. 

It was very true that Shadow and Barda were the only real ‘matches’ for the Furies, though saying that made this easy would not precisely be the truth. Deciding to take out the weak one of the group, Mad Harrieit attacked first, unleashing her claws in a seamless motion and, laughing eagerly, moves to attack Rogue. However, she was stopped as Barda Intervene using her Mega-Rod clashing with the mad Fury’s claws. Barda attempts to both kick and shoot Harriet, but she dodges. The two exchange several more attacks and parries until Harriet kicks Barda several feet away.

Harriet turns to go after Rogue again, who rushed forward with a rising high kick to meet her. Harriet uses her claws to block the kick and in return kicks Rogue backward. She easily remains upright and they clash again. Harriet manages to land a strike on Rogue's right arm, causing her to cry out at the pain and her to laugh. 

However, her laugh was cut short as she was suddenly sent tumbling backwards much to hehr shock and anger as she looked to see Shadow there with a leg outstretched before lowering it to the ground. “Why you!” Harriet hissed, flexing her claws as she moved to thrush towards Shadow raking her claws along the ground creating sparks along the ground, yet she would never reach Shadow as the Ultimate Life form snorted and then vanished right before her eyes. Skidding to a stop, she looked around to try and locate where Shadow was and she didn’t have to wait long.

Harriet was seemingly struck down by an assault from all sides, a kick to the side of her head knocked the Fury askew, followed immediately by a left cross that cocked her head around and a knee to the abdomen that lifted her several feet off the ground. Then, Shadow appeared before her grinding both his fists at his side while briefly ascending into the air. While grinding his fists, Shadow invoked Chaos Control and distorts space around both his fists, creating small violet and purple pulsating spheres around each fist that repels Harriet away across the ground and into a nearby wall. 

Shadow snorted as he landed on the ground, his posture relaxed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Not much of a challenge.” 

However, he suddenly vanished in a flash of Chaos Control and with good reason as right as he did Stompa came down from above with a drop kick cracking the very ground underneath. “Damnit!” she growled, when she saw that she had missed her chance to crush the Hedgehog under her boots. “Where are you, you damn rodent!” 

“Right here” Shadow remarked as he just as suddenly re-emerged above her, clamping both of his fists together as he slammed them into the back of her head. Though she was durable enough to not have her skull split open, she was still knocked to the ground complete with a slight rumbling of the ground she made impact with. Shadow didn’t have much time to prepare for her standing back up though, as Lashina was quick to take an opening and quite literally lashed at him with one of her whips - it took lightning fast reflexes to maneuver around her moves, however she was soon distracted when Red Hood threw one of his knives directly at her. 

It just barely missed her face and embedding itself in the stone wall behind her, it was apparent he was mostly just looking to gain her attention as he stood before her with twin pistols ready.

With Barda by now exchanging blows with Gilotina, a clash which was already causing one of the hall’s massive pillars to collapse to the ground, and Rouge as well as Oliver both occupied with Mad Harriet - Omega taking control of the battle with Stompa as Shadow was joining Red Hood against Lasha, it was clear that the conflict in this room was far from over.

* * *

All of what was going on could be heard from the chamber that Mephiles, Grayven, Kalibak and Raven were present in; they could hear well the echoing of explosions, the roaring rumbles of explosions and the crumbling of entire sections of the room. All of it churning into their ears, travelling down the massive drop that separated them where it was taking place. As they waited for the victors to join them, the three ‘children’ remained quiet as did their father. The latter himself kept his hands cupped behind his back, still gazing upon the cavernous walls in front of him for seemingly no reason - his lack of a mouth ever making his emotions impossible to discern, though he seemed to be patiently waiting. With each sound of the battle erupting above him, he knew that the time was coming ever nearer.

Soon he would be whole again, and not just this universe, but every universe shall either submit to his will or otherwise be burned until they are but glass.

The children however, were not quite as patient as their father. At least, the two males weren’t - in fact the least patient of all was Kalibak. Raven was completely silent during the entire ordeal, staring aimlessly at her ‘father’ as though she hadn’t a mind of her own at all; as though it had been taken from her. Kalibak and Grayven ignored her existence as well, instead Kalibak turning to his brother and speaking to him with a whisper:

“Why must we sit here and wait while the fools are at the gate?” he asked, “Why are we not facing them head on like true warriors?”

“Kalibak” Grayven answered, “Father has-”

“Father” Mephiles interrupted, “Made his orders quite clear.”

“I simply don’t understand, father” Kalibak said as he attempted to explain himself, “Why not release the changeling swarm or return use of the paradooms? They were rather effective on the weaklings of earth!”

“And yet they still ended up being a _ failure _ ” Mephiles said, still not even turning to face either of his ‘children’, “I have learned a valuable lesson from my time spent in separation; mindless drones do not function well as ultimate weapons. I’m not making the same misjudgement again, and that is _ final _ . ”

Kalibak and Grayven both silently felt aggression pass over them at the mention of Shadow being ‘ultimate’. Kalibak even moreso, of course. Yet they knew well to keep any further objections to themselves, knowing from experience with one half of their ‘father’ that it was a terrible idea to push his buttons.

With the sounds of battle still echoing above, they knew that their time was approaching. Soon they would get their chance to prove themselves as the true Ultimate Apokoliptians.

* * *

Back at where the battle was taking place, Harriet gasped as a series of rapid strikes landed right into her lower areas, specifically around her diaphragm. The barrage of pinches did not let up, but one could hear here gasping for breath, then several blows all in rapid succession landed frm her face all the way down to her stomach and it was the final hit that packed the most power as it ended up making her hit the ground with a hard impact. Standing over her, was none other than Shadow the ultimate lifeform having used his speed along with chaos control to strike the Fury with the barrage of attacks that managed to take her down easily, despite her impressive durability she was no match for the overwhelming speed and power of the Ultimate Lifeform. 

With the others similar things were taking place, as Oliver and Omega had managed to put an end to Lashina and Gilotina’s attacks with a combined efforts of Omega’s various weapons and Oliver’s many different trick arrows, now both furies were out cold and tied up back to back against one another. 

Much the same occurred with Big Barda and Rogue as the two combined had managed to subdue and take down Stompa, while the kick using Fury had skills, Rogue was better at maneuvering and her wings gave her a better advantage with both ground and aerial combat and combined with Big Barda lending her support the two soon had Stompa on the ropes before she was stuck down and subdued and tossed over near the other furies. 

However, just as they had the furies essentially defeated - slamming them into one of the last remaining columns, causing it to collapse and essentially merge with the rest of the massive piles of debris and dust laying throughout the now ruined hall did the chamber begin to shake and rattle all around them - pieces of rock falling from the shadows of the ceiling as they felt as though they were standing in the middle of an earthquake. Due to the sheer amount of earth that was held above this chamber, it simply couldn’t stand without enough of it’s supporting pillars - with most of them now having been collapsed, so too did the chamber itself.

As it shook and roared as though tearing itself apart, the team of six decided to leave the defeated furies to whatever fate had in store for them as they made a mad dash for the chamber from which they sprung from; the one where they knew their true enemy was residing.

As a massive cloud of dust and the massive crumbling of earth and ruins alike began caving in on the hall, the team managed to begin their rapid descent down the dark, circular shaft just in the knick of time. Looking above they could see the tail end of the aforementioned dust cloud, with small rocks of the debris still finding their way in raining down on them. They couldn’t possibly know if that had managed to slay the furies or not, but they were sure they would find out eventually. Truth be told, Barda was doubtful it could possibly be that easy, having trained them.

Still, the group was now making their descent towards what they were hoping would be the final area of this hellish journey into the depths.

Landing on the stone tiles that made up the floor at the bottom of the shaft, Shadow, Barda, Omega and Rouge were the first to stand up and face the open doorway that led directly into the chamber where Mephiles and his ‘children’ were residing. As they were mere humans, Oliver and Red Hood were the last of the group to make their landing - Arrow having to use his arrows and Red Hood a knife embedded in the wall in order to slow themselves down so as to not shatter their limbs upon landing from such a high height.

Even so, a wave of silence came over them as they could see him from a distance. Levitating in the air as his children stood below him. Back turned towards them, hands cupped behind his back. It was hard to believe in this moment that they had finally reached this, but here they stood.

Clenching his fists as his glare tightened, Shadow led the approach into the massive chamber. As he cleared the gap between the door and the humongous platform the demon floated above, he called him out furiously:

“Mephiles!” just as he confronted his nemesis, the rest of his team was right behind him, though Mephiles’ head was not the only one turning to face him. Raven, Grayven and Kalibak did as well. Of them however, the one who spoke first was of course the ‘almighty’ father:

“I was expecting you sooner, you know” Mephiles spoke most casually, as though this intrusion was little more than a nuisance to him, “As you must have already deduced, you’re already too late.”

While saying this, he was of course materializing the red, white, turquoise and yellow emeralds as if to brag about his acquisition of them to his adversary. There was no sign of the purple one, though Shadow paid little mind to the matter. There wasn’t much time for him to do so anyway, for before anyone could even get through another thought Mephiles was already resuming his speech:

“But there’s still time for you to change your mind” he said while maintaining eye contact with Shadow, before getting directly to the point as he held out his hands in a gesture of power with the emeralds floating together above his head, “Join me, Shadow. Let us teach this world a lesson, and rewrite the future!”

Realizing well by now what it was Mephiles had been intending when he had ‘fought’ with Omega at the beach, as well as beginning to get a full grasp on just what his true intentions were, Shadow was having absolutely none of what this demonic monster was saying. Waving an arm of his in a gesture of disgust and rage at the demon still daring to attempt manipulating him, Shadow scowled as he said right back but a single set of sharp words:

“Don’t try to deceive me!”

Almost as if caught off-guard by Shadow’s response, Mephiles had a pause of silence before his only response came from his mouthless head as but a single word:

“What?”

“You don’t want revenge on the world!” Shadow declared while pointing at the demon, “You only want me to serve as your right hand over a world of torture and misery! Your only lust is to become whole with Iblis again and bring forth endless destruction upon every reality that there is!”

After letting Shadow confront him in such a manner, Mephiles let down his arms as he said ever bluntly:

“It’s a pity, Shadow the Hedgehog” he said as he had the chaos emeralds yet again vanish with a single flash of darkness, as his children began to stand in front of the six as a clear sign of what was to come, “Truly a shame that you wish to go against  _ me _ . It is of no consequence though; I had you brought into this world, and I will have you taken out of it.”

With both his children and the six ‘heroes’ confronting him preparing for what was now inevitable - with Kalibak and Grayven having the most sadistic of grins imaginable, Mephiles finished the ‘foreplay’ off with but one final sentence directed at his three ‘offspring’ themselves:

“Raven, take care of the traitor and the rest. Boys, you may show Shadow why one is supposed to obey me.”

Initiating the conflict was Raven, who without saying a single world complied with her father’s will. Levitating herself into the air as a dark aura in the shape of a raven formed around her body, she hurled herself towards Red Hood, Rouge, Omega, Oliver and Barda in order to force them into a separate battle against her while Kalibak and Grayven cracked their knuckles as they approached Shadow. Though Shadow instinctively turned around by instinct to see what was happening with his friends and allies, this only meant the two sons of Darkseid had an opening to attack - with Kalibak being the one to swing his fist to violently punch Shadow in the back of his head. Or at least attempt to, for Shadow easily escaped it with a well timed chaos control.

Once he realized he had merely punched thin air, Kalibak was naturally frustrated - gritting his teeth in an infuriated growl:

“Where are you, you fucking rat?!” he shouted, “Come out face me-” he was interrupted when Shadow swiftly re-emerged, drop kicking him to the ground from behind. Looking down at his grounded opponent, Shadow was quick to respond to him:

“It’s  _ hedgehog _ , you pathetic brute.”

Kalibak growled ever madly at Shadow, though ultimately would not be the one to deliver the next blow to the ultimate lifeform. Instead that honor would go to Grayven, who within a matter of moments managed to catch Shadow off guard and delivered a knee to his face, actually managing to send him to the ground while the New God himself grinned in satisfied delight. Of course, once he lunged himself to punch Shadow in the face while he was down, Shadow responded by powerfully blocking the hit with his wrists - albeit there was still a shockwave from the impact, one powerful enough to rattle the stone tiles beneath them. 

“Am  _ I _ such a pathetic brute, rodent?” Grayven mocked as he looked down upon Shadow as he remained pinned beneath him, laughing as he remarked “You’re playing with the big boys now!”

As Grayven repeatedly bashed Shadow’s blocking wrists with his own two fists, he was ultimately caught off guard when Shadow’s own lit up with the bright green lights of chaos energy,soon afterwards sending him flinging him off to the cavern walls so far away with but a single pulse. As Shadow kept his eyes on the resulting dust cloud of the impact, he was sure to answer his enemy’s question:

“Yes. You are.”

It was then that Shadow overheard a guttural roar, turning to see Kalibak charging towards him with a look of totally primal rage. Shadow discharged his chaos energy in the form of beams sent towards the rampaging New God, though with a leap Kalibak was above to dodge them - ultimately he yet again pounced onto Shadow, though Shadow braced himself for this impact. Soon the two had their hands locked together, furiously glaring at each other in a clash as their feet scraped along the stone floor; gritting their teeth together as they both were attempting to overpower the other. It was in this moment that, staring down at a being who had been the source of this great rage within him, Kalibak exclaimed with a growl:

“You worthless runt!” he hissed, “You don’t deserve the mantle of being father’s heir! You’re not even fit to be a pulp beneath my boots!”

“Considering ‘father’ is immortal” Shadow remarked without even removing eye contact for a second, “Being his ‘heir’ sounds rather redundant, even if I did actually want it!”

Those words only made Kalibak even more furious, as he yet again let out a brutish roar as he bellowed back:

“You steal my birthright, and now you mock me?!”

“I’m not stealing something I don’t even want!”

In a moment of pure rage, Kalibak briefly managed to seemingly overpower Shadow - letting out another growl from his monstrous throat as he managed successfully to headbutt him to the ground. Their clash broken and his foe now on the ground beside his feet, Kalibak didn’t even take much time to relish in this moment; by this point all he could think to focus on was bringing end to the supposed ultimate lifeform once in for all, proving himself yet again as the dark lord’s ultimate son and rightful heir.

Unfortunately for him however, that would not come to pass.

Lifting both of his fists into the air as he let out an angered cry, intent on literally beating Shadow to death, he stopped mid roar. The sound of something tearing clean through his armor, flesh, and even spine was heard as his eyes widened, and blood poured from his mouth. Faster than he could even react, Shadow had summoned into his hand yet another chaos spear and successfully jammed it clean through Kalibak’s heart. As the weapon of chaos energy vanished, it had already burned most of Kalibak’s insides by the time he fell to the ground as nothing but a corpse.

His eyes did not even close once he had fallen. They remained opened, in a perpetual state of shock as his opponent was the one standing on his feet, looking down on him with nothing but contempt. 

The last stand of Kalibak did not go unnoticed by Mephiles, who had to watch every second of it from his perch above the battlefield. Though he had no face to show how watching the death of his firstborn through Darkseid made him feel, it did make the dark lord slowly and silently shift hands from being cupped behind his back to being idly at his sides - all without uttering a single word. 

Even Shadow could feel the utter coldness of Mephiles’ stare before long, and turned his head to face the demon accordingly - yet he was not intimidated in the slightest. Far braver than any being who either Trigon or Darkseid, let alone Solaris, had ever faced before. Shadow had just killed the darkest lord’s eldest son, and the stone cold look on both his face and in his eyes was one that said he was completely unafraid of the consequences. In fact, it was though he was  _ challenging  _ the puppet master. He hadn’t just simply proven himself the ultimate son, he had done so as an act of rebellion.

This challenge would not quite yet be reciprocated however, as Grayven was still a threat. Just as Shadow and Mephiles were having their stand-off, Shadow’s attention was taken away from the motionless dark lord when he overheard Grayven roaring out in his own rage as he charged at the black hedgehog. Shadow was unphased however, maintaining his composure as he brandished his chaos emerald at the remaining brother and uttered but two words ever calmly:

“Chaos control.”

As with the white hedgehog not too terribly long ago, Grayven was stopped in his tracks just as he was motioning to swing a fist directly into the side of Shadow’s head. Instead, it was Shadow who used this to deliver an aerial roundhouse kick directly to the back of Grayven’s head - knocking him to the ground in the exact same manner as he had used before.

However, Shadow did not waste as much time like he did before. Brandishing out another chaos spear, he made motions to plunge it into the back of Grayven’s head as he stood himself on top of the New God’s back, however Grayven unveiled a limited ability of energy projection - pulling up a shield of red energy to deflect the chaos spear to the roof of the chamber before then bucking his body like a mad bull to fling Shadow off of him.

Acting fast, Grayven swiftly got his feet and grabbed Shadow by his neck just as the Hedgehog was beginning to get up - lifting him up into the air with a look of rage upon his face as he snarled at his enemy with utter disdain flaming in his eyes:

“You  _ dar _ e kill my brother, blood son of Darkseid, rightful heir to Apokolips both Old and New?!” he growled, “Once I have removed your head, I shall mount it above father’s throne myself!”

Grayven was adamant that soon he would crush Shadow’s throat hard enough that his head popped off like a zit on the face of a teenage human. However, he didn’t fully anticipate how durable Shadow was, as he actually found himself gritting his teeth as he tried to clamp his hands down harder than they already were.In fact, as Shadow struggled against him he even found that he needed to use both hands on the ultimate lifeform’s neck to merely feel like he was getting somewhere. So heavily fixated on what he was intending to do, he didn’t notice that Shadow had one hand not trying to pull him off. One hand that was yet again brandishing the green chaos emerald.

Despite how much Grayven was trying, he still wasn’t strong enough to prevent Shadow from uttering out the single phrase he needed:

“Chaos - ngh - control!”

And like that, Shadow had yet again vanished - making Grayven clasp down on what was thin air. 

Unlike his late brother, he didn’t even have the time to react - as he felt a blistering pain inside of his own body. One that made his eyes both widen and become bloodshot as it felt as though everything inside of him was being grinded down by the blades of a blender, enough to make him gurgle and choke on his own blood as he let out an agonizing scream for all to hear mere moments before Shadow burst straight out of his chest - leaving him a corpse with a gaping hole in his chest filled with only blended masses of flesh as he then fell to his knees, and then onto his front. Just as his brother, the look of agony he had in his final moments was now what his body was perpetually stuck with.

Shaking off whatever remained of Grayven, Shadow wasted no time in again locking his stone cold glare with Mephiles’ now even colder one. Neither of the two said anything, nor did they make any moves on each other. Instead, it was as though they were having a silent conversation with the leering looks in their respective eyes.

Speaking with their voices would have been useless; they knew perfectly well what the other was ‘saying’.

As the two nemeses stared each other down, the conflict between the other six in the chamber was itself just wrapping up. The last of Mephiles’ children, Raven, had proved a formidable adversary even when outnumbered five to one. By the time of her half-brothers’ demise, she had already managed to successfully subdue a few of her opponents: Oliver lay on his back on the ground, many of his arrows having been telekinetically thrown back at him. Though not dead, he did have bleeding wounds from some of his own arrows plunging themselves into his shoulders and thighs. Even Rouge had been knocked clean from the air with two well placed blasts of Raven’s dark magic to both of her wings followed by her chest.

Red Hood and Omega, seeing as how Raven was capable of making energy shields to defend herself from all the explosives and ammunition they could possibly discharge onto her while also firing back at them, were forced to take a different approach than firing at her from a so-called ‘safe’ distance. 

They both charged at her - albeit while firing away at her; Red Hood with his twin pistols and Omega with continuous gatling gun rounds. Without saying a single word, Raven put up another dark energy shield to protect herself from their gunfire before changing her town tactics as they were just about to get close enough for hand-to-hand combat. Forming all around herself the dark form of a large raven that pounced itself upon the two of them, she then forged the shape of two large fists that held both of them tightly within the air as her eyes glowed a vicious color of red in addition to her gaining a temporary second pair of them above her first - clamping down on them tightly, with increasing force as she was making effort to crush them under her full might.

With her focus entirely on crushing Red Hood and Omega, she had not accounted for the last of her standing opponents, Barda. Still armed with her second spear as well as her shield, Barda stood up onto her feet from an earlier attack and noticed what Raven was doing. Knowing that it wouldn’t be long before Red Hood’s spine was crushed while Omega was reduced to scraps, she knew she had to act fast. Looking at her spear and at the demon girl with her back turned to her, she readied her glare as she knew what her only option was. It was a longshot, but it was the only thing that might possibly work, and it would depend entirely on her strength.

Launching her spear at the girl’s back like that of a javelin with all of her might, Barda ultimately managed a direct hit. As the spear tore through Raven’s back and protruded out of her chest, her widening eyes returned to normal as she gasped; releasing Omega and Red Hood as the dark aura around her vanished. It was apparent however that things weren’t quite normal with her, as the blood that emerged from her fatal wound was not red but instead black like that of tar. This was especially apparent as Barda approached her from behind and pulled the spear out of her just as she had dropped to her knees, causing it to more profusely pour from the stab wound where a normal young woman’s heart would be.

Her voice and body both becoming increasingly weak, the only thing she said after slowly turned to face Barda - her violet eyes having an emotion not of pain or sorrow but rather of extreme relief and solace, was spoken with a tranquil smile:

“Thank you…” and it was with those words that she fell to the floor upon her back, closing her eyes and extending out her arms in an almost angelic pose as though she was free from the jaws of Hell and ascending instead to Heaven.

Barda gave her fallen opponent a nod as she witnessed this, paying her a fair due of respect before turning her attention to the being who had been keeping her a slave in the first place. Before long she as well as the others were getting up onto their feet and standing beside Shadow as they all now only had but one enemy left to deal with.

Mephiles himself.

With the silence between the remaining seven persisting, it was Mephiles - his voice in a cold, bitter yet subdued rage, who was the first to speak as he lowered himself down to the same elevation as the others:

“It appears I’ve underestimated the lot of you” he admitted, fires of a tranquil fury that would intimidate even the mightiest gods of olympus, “You may have silenced the  _ little _ birds, but rest assured that the big one is not such easy prey!”

As prepared as the six of them all were, there was not much they could have honestly done to prepare for what was coming. With a flash of fury, Mephiles’ upper pair of eyes at last revealed itself in the present time, glaring straight at them with the same fury that his original pair was - all while at the same time he prepared his clawed hands for attack. However, bracing themselves for him charging at them proved unnecessary, as instead he unleashed a massive fury of what was best described as horrific black lightning from the tips of his crystalline claws - illuminating the entire room with a flashing blue light as each branching stream was jet black, laced with blue with the sound of violent electricity being mixed with what sounded like the morbid, ghostly screaming of damned souls from the pits of Hell itself.

That was nothing though, for when it struck the six of them their screaming was very much added to the mix. Their attempts to jump and evade the nightmarish lightning before it struck them proved to be in vain, as it was far too quick and they were far too unprepared for it - resulting in them being struck whether or not they were in the ground or in the air. As they screamed in agony as their skeletal structures flashed in tandem with the painful light itself, they learned that this so-called lightning had a bit more to it than what they could have anticipated. It seemed to be a part of his psionic powers, as with ease the demonic lord’s lightning seemed to drag the six around as though they were but ragdolls. Scraping them viciously back and forth against the stone floor with enough force to uproot the stone tiles themselves; even shoving both Shadow and Barda deep into the cavernous walls surrounding the platform, before pulling them back in and proceeding to repeatedly slam them up and down. These motions and even more went on all as the painful sensations of electric shocks surging through their bodies repeated ad nauseum, and as Mephiles’ voice echoed through the entire chamber even over the sound of both their screaming and his own lightning:

“This rebellion has more than overstayed its welcome!” he called out, “I told you once that I would kill you myself, Shadow. Now I make due on that promise, though I shall do so slowly and painfully; you will die only after all of your allies do so before you; only by submitting to my will shall you, and you alone, be spared!”

Even as he was being electrocuted, shoved from the air down to the ground and dragged to the very edge of the platform in the center of a whole foot deep impact crater, Shadow looked at the demonic lord and between pained grunts was still capable of mouthing to him a single word response:

“ _ Never _ .”

Scoffing at his defiance without letting up his assault, Mephiles responded ever coldly:

“Then you shall  _ die _ .”

True to his word, Mephiles proceeded on with full intent of watching Shadow and all of his closest allies perish at the hands of himself and his hellish power. The only thing preventing the mortals among them from already being deceased was Mephiles’ own sadism; he relished in watching them die  _ slowly _ . Being a being that only previously existed in the darkest nightmares of the Justice League and their proteges, it was perhaps only natural that he would take his time with kill as important to him as this - the most defiant of all his children, managing to even surpass _ her _ .

Yes,  _ her _ .

The young Raven, who still lay on the ground as all of this happened. The wound through her chest still bleeding out the black tar she had for ‘blood’ as the corpses of her so-called half-brothers lie ever motionless around her - rubble and crystals alike falling around her as her ‘father’ tortured his quarry. 

In times long gone by, she had previously taken that mantle. Defiant to Solaris’ Trigon half to the very end, previously playing key roles in ultimately preventing his previous attempts at world conquest; though even she couldn’t have prevented the birth of Solaris, something she unknowingly played a key role in. Something which more than likely was an additional source of guilt on top of what Mephiles, the being’s wiser half, has thus far forced her to do.

As content she was with just laying down and accepting her form and life being swallowed back into the same darkness from which it spawned, she knew there was still much she had left to do. Opening her eyes with one last deep breath, she mustered up just enough energy to slowly stand herself back up, as much as it pained her to do so.

Once on her feet, she didn’t even take a single second to stabilize herself - not enough time. She simply clutched the wound in her chest as she hissed in pain, yet still motioned her feet towards the dark lord who had made her entire existence in this time a living hell. The very being who had forced her to witness things which even in these aching moments dance in her mind with a vividness as though she were still living through them all. The very being who let her live solely to have the satisfaction of ‘breaking’ both her spirit and mind. The being who called herself some kind of ‘father’.

Miraculously, her entire approach was not met with a single attack directed towards her.

Though she did not for a second think this was the fault of her ‘father’ lacking intelligence. Perhaps he still believed her to be _ broken _ . Having no reason yet to suspect that she had different intentions.

As such, Raven was capable of doing the most unthinkable.

Once she was close enough to him, she grabbed onto his torso while deploying the full force of her psionic energy, successfully lifting him into the air and over her head as he himself let out a loud roar of sheer surprise. This motion came at a price however, as not only was still in pain from the wound in her chest but she now had the full force of Mephiles’ psionic lightning directed at her. It took all of her own remaining telekinetic strength to not be pushed away from what she was doing, though even as she was anticipating it enough to prepare for that she was not able to prevent how much each shock burned.

As such made her way fast she could towards the edge of the platform, the six who had previously been subjected to that same excruciating pain looked at this sight in silent awe. 

“You ungrateful witch! Imputent spawn of mine! You will suffer an even greater torture than what I had subjected your friends to! I will have you returned to what has become of your precious home, and I will see to it that you are disciplined with no holds barred for the remainder of eternity! ” Mephiles screamed as he was directing as much of his energy towards his ‘daughter’, among other colorful insults. Though she ignored all of his words, and instead merely said once she was at the very edge of the platform overlooking the pit of water so far beneath:

“Aazarath...metrion….zinthos!”

Putting all of her remaining energy into one last attack, she wrapped Mephiles in a ball of dark magic as she tossed him with every last bit of her might over the edge of the platform and into the waters so far below. As she looked down at his fall with great fury flaring in her eyes, she saw as he hit the waters while still firing away his lightning - causing the entire room to light up one final time as all of the fluid was promptly lit up by his piercing sparks that even ran all the way up the streams flowing into it from above with enough force to cause them to entirely dry up, accompanied by a truly gargantuan explosion of oil black darkness and howling blue fire that also encompassed the entire length of the the moat; the entire chamber if not the entire underground complex itself rumbling as the sounds of it all no doubt echoed for as far they could possibly go.

All of it caused by the water itself forcing Mephiles’ choice of electric power to be used against him.

Once the explosion had dissipated and things feel to a tranquil silence, not only did the water below be replaced entirely by what appeared be tar-like, pitch black darkness which ebbed and flowed just the same - but so did Raven collapse to the ground with a single whimper, Shadow and the others immediately running to her side the moment they saw her fainting.

Reaching her moments before she could fully hit the ground, Shadow managed to grab her gently as he was kneeled to the ground, cupping the back of her head with one of her hands as she weakly looked him right in the eyes - yet again a soft smile coming across her face as she laid her violet eyes upon his face one last time.

“Sh-Shadow….” she spoke faintly, feeling her life slowly slipping away, “Brother…”

“Don’t worry” Shadow said to her, “We’re going to get you out of here.”

“No…” she said, coughing a bit in her rapidly increasing weakness, “No you’re not…” she yet again coughed again, the group gasping quietly as they noticed her legs were beginning to melt as though they were made of plastic - collapsing into a form resembling the very same black fluid that Mephiles’ original form was comprised of. What’s more, it was apparent this melting was going to be taking over the rest of her body soon, even as he touched Shadow’s cheek with one of her hands, weakly saying to him, “I...I did my part, after all he did to me….spawned me from his own darkness, sending me...the Titans….my friends...he had me...betray...he made me watch....”

With a gently saddened look on his face, already imagining in his mind a similar scene from his own past as this occurred to him, it was with a soft voice that Shadow assured her:

“It’s alright, I promise you he’s never going to hurt you again.”

“I know....” her voice continuing to sutter and trail as the melting was beginning to progress up to her torso, she asked but one final question to the only brother she was proud to refer to as such, “Do, do you still have the second scepter?”

Shadow looked over to Omega after being asked that question, and it was with silence that Omega opened up his mechanical chest to reveal the duplicate scepter of darkness from inside a small storage compartment, closing the hatch once he took the scepter in his hands and gave it to Shadow. Seeing this, the weakening sorceress yet again gave a hopeful smile as she remarked:

“G-good...then it’s all up to you from here on out…” coughing and gasping as she could now feel herself beginning to rejoin with the darkness she was spawned from, the melting now turning all that remained of her ever slowly into a black puddle on the floor - though she retained her upper body for just long enough to place a hand on one of the inhibitor rings Shadow had around his wrists, saying as firmly she could “If the scepter doesn’t work, don’t hesitate, it will take everything you have...to destroy him…” 

As she let out her final gasp before letting herself return to the form from which she had started, Shadow gave her a respectful though tearful nod and gently stood himself up to allow her a graceful descent into the puddle she had become. As the group of six looked on in silence they watched as the puddle then dissipated into a cloud that blew away like that of a gentle breeze, letting out the sound of a raven’s call as it vanished into the air around all of them.

Rouge, only able to imagine what was going through Shadow’s head at the moment, placed a hand to the hedgehog’s shoulder. Though nothing was said between the two, Shadow looked at her with a calmness about him before looking more seriously at the scepter now in his hand. Turning from the object to the pit where his nemesis had been thrown into, there was but only one thing to be said:

“Let’s finish this.”

As the rest of the team stood back, Shadow held the scepter up with both hands - letting it levitate into the air as it glistened a bright magenta light, not long afterwards causing the mass of darkness that had replaced the water below them to swirl towards it in the form of a rapidly moving black cloud - swirling and churning until absolutely all of the darkness that was the dark lord had been sucked into the scepter’s entrapment. Shadow even smirked in triumph for a brief moment, thinking that his greatest nemesis was finally dealt with.

But just as soon as he shifted his face into that smirk, he and all of the others could feel as though something was wrong. The moment that all of Mephiles had been ‘drained’, leaving behind a completely dry abyss of darkness around the ground on which they stood, the scepter had a white aura around itself as it remained in the air. Instead of dropping to the ground, it instead flipped upside down as that bright light overtook both it and the rest of the room - an ear piercing sound emitting from it as all of them had to shield their eyes, the only thing they knew was happening as that the scepter was shaking madly in the air, for a moment they thought it was going to take them and the entire complex along with it.

Though eventually they heard the sound of glass shattering accompanied by that of marble stone being crushed to mere pieces, crumbs falling to the stone tiles below as the flashing lights and screeching sound stopped - Rouge being the first of them to witness the swirling black vortex that had taken the scepter’s place, exclaiming in shock as she saw nothing left of the artifact:

“It’s destroyed!”

Indeed, in perhaps the most defiant use of demonic power - Mephiles had managed to destroy the very thing set to seal him away. Something which he had been incapable of doing even during his time ‘in separation’ as Trigon. As Mephiles yet again took form, his head forging it self back into being through the swirling black of the vortex he wasted no time in mocking the group for their hubris in thinking a mere scepter could possibly hold him:

“The ‘I’ of now has no longer has any need for a vestigial scepter; what may have worked ten years ago  _ no longer does _ !”

With his arms and torso taking form as well, he unfolded them just as he emitted what was a series of several circular blasts of energy, strong enough with one blast to make the entire stone flooring rumble and shake to pieces along with the earth beneath it, and with a second to send all six of the group flying right to the very edge of the platform - the only solace they received being that they graciously landed on the stone rather than the dried out abyss of rock far below it - like that of the two New God corpses.

That did not change the fact that by the time they had fallen however, Mephiles had already completely retook his form and landed gracefully to the ground, glaring at them with all four of his eyes as Shadow was the first to look at him, gritting his teeth with a growl as his own red eyes once again locked with the demon’s. Much to Shadow’s shock if not even a bit of horror, Mephiles materialized not four but five chaos emeralds to levitate just above his head - the red, yellow, white, turquoise and  _ green _ emeralds. Indeed, the demon had evidently managed to swipe Shadow’s emerald, perhaps his blasts being enough to pry it from the hedgehog’s possession for just long enough.

Nevertheless, there was nothing that could be done about it now. 

“You have all interfered with my plans for the last time!” Mephiles said as all of the emeralds glistened above him, his voice echoing loudly through the chamber, “It is time I show you what happens to those who defi”

Extending his arms out one more time, Mephiles unleashed from the emeralds that not only overtook himself but also the entire platform on which they all had been standing - bracing themselves and trying to protect their eyes didn’t help Shadow and his team from being engulfed by it either. Once it hit them, they all felt a sensation not too unlike the feeling of traversing through a boom tube or even Shadow’s own chaos control - which of course meant it was a feeling extremely similar to a certain ability Mephiles had used prior.

Only time would tell where they would end up emerging....

Or perhaps,  _ when _ .


	14. His World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the events of "The Solaris Project" through to the following chapters, we see things from Sonic's perspective.

_ HOURS EARLIER… _

_ Well this vacation sure isn’t going the way I was thinking it would, but hey, I guess it would be pretty boring if everything was ‘ordinary’ for a change! _

_ Still though, gotta make sure Elise is safe.... _

As he and Shadow burst through the roof of Eggman’s together after outrunning and disabling it, Sonic wasted no time in allowing Shadow to confront Eggman on his own while he himself went to look for Elise. While it was true that Eggman was  _ his  _ nemesis, he could tell by the look in Shadow’s eyes that whatever he needed to do with Eggman was personal. As such, while they were handling their conversation Sonic set out to zoom around like a blue wind through the train until he found which cabin Elise was being held up in - thankfully he needed to not look far, as in a matter of mere seconds he located her in the second cabin after the one with the ‘cockpit’ in it.

The cabin itself was honestly nothing much special from Sonic’s point of view. It was just a stainless steel room from top to bottom, with red borders around the edges of the walls. The only thing unique about it was that it was a prison cell, sporting two wide cells on either side running down the length of the cabin with a single walkway between them. As such it didn’t take him long to find Elise, curled up in one of the corners as she looked down at the floor with a sad look to her face. Though she seemed depressed and trapped in her own mind, she was otherwise completely unharmed - not a single lock of her auburn red hair seemed out of place. Sonic was even more pleased when she looked up to see him behind the cell bars, immediately pulling her out of that depressive look as a surprised yet also hopeful expression immediately took over:

“Sonic!” she exclaimed, rushing to the bars as she expressed the greatest of reliefs, “You came for me again! I knew you would!”

“Heh!” Sonic chuckled, “Of course I did! Now stand back while I take care of these bars!”

Elise nodded and did as Sonic suggested her to, standing back so that she was a safe distance for what Sonic did next: rolling into his own ball like state and at the speed of a whip of the fastest gust of wind imaginable used his speed to muster up enough power through velocity to bend the bars enough so that both him and Elise could slip their bodies through them with ease - it took a few rounds of smacking himself between them like an oversized pinball, but it was ultimately successful. Elise herself couldn’t help but watch in hopeful awe as she watched her savior do his work.

Once he had enough of the bars dented, he stood in the cell right before the gaping hole of dented, bent metal and hold out a hand to Elise now without any obstruction; with an ever confident, cocky smirk to his face he gestured:

“Shall we?”

Elise couldn’t help but giggle at this gesture, Sonic being so ‘courteous’ in his own special way, she couldn’t help but return it by gently placing her hand onto his palm and responding with a nod:

“Yes, we shall~”

Yet again sweeping Elise into his arms, Sonic gave her a wingle wink before proceeding to swiftly carry her out of the cell, out of the train, and back into the world outside of that metallic prison. Though the glaring light of the sun was quite blinding, her eyes adjusted quick enough so that she could see the canyon that lay just on the outside of the train - massive ridges of rock on either side, with various mining structures and equipment scattered throughout the area both on the ground and far above. Even the lush green grass along the ground was broken up by patches of dirt, and that’s not to mention the disabled train that rested on the tracks in the center of it all mere feet away from having entered a tunnel.

That train was now increasingly behind her though, something for which she was very grateful. As she sat in Sonic’s arms while he carried her as though he were a breeze of wind bringing her to safety, they both thought for a moment that finally this repeated game of her being kidnapped ad nauseum was over. 

That of course, was when Silver arrived.

As they made their way away from the train, it was just as Elise happily mused “I knew it! I knew you’d return! You had to!” that the attack was launched. Sonic only had the time to look over and gasp when he saw it hurdling towards him, a blast of glowing green energy that was only avoided when he jumped out of the way - allowing it to hit the ground as he and Elise landed safely. 

Putting Elise down beside him as he turned to face his opponent, Sonic saw the face of that same white hedgehog who had attacked him in the Soleanna castle town mere hours ago. Not yet knowing this figure’s name to be Silver, all Sonic could say upon seeing that yellow eyed face of his again was a most annoyed:

“You again…”

With a tone of extreme irritation of his own, Silver snapped at Sonic while pointing right at him - his mouth snarling:

“This time there will be no interruptions!” 

Sonic let this honestly annoying ‘assassin’ continue his banter while he got to his feet, making sure Elise was ‘safely’ behind him while doing so. Maintaining full eye contact, Silver’s threats didn’t let up at all:

“The Iblis Trigger…” he said, “Must,  _ die _ !”

Just as Elise softly spoke Sonic’s name while backing herself away from this, Silver unleashed another blast of green energy at the ground on which Sonic stood, forcing Sonic to use his reflexes to dodge it. Rolling on the ground in front of Silver’s eyes, Sonic barely had the time to stand back up when Silver had him right where he wanted him - holding out a hand as it was suddenly surrounded by an emergent aura of that same green energy, quickly surrounding Sonic in it as well.

While Silver was able to move around though, Sonic found himself gasping as he was no longer able to do such at all. It was though he was grabbed by Silver and held completely in place without even being touched at all, Sonic only barely able to even squirm as he was trapped in whatever this white hedgehog was doing to him - though this was an ability he encountered in their first battle, he still didn’t entirely understand what exactly was being done to him.

_ Gah! _

_ How does he have this kind of power?! _

_ Not even Shadow does this kind of stuff! _

_ What is this guy even talking about? What the heck is an Iblis Trigger? _

_ Ngh, I gotta get outta this and get Elise back to the city! _

Alas, Sonic wouldn’t precisely accomplish that final goal so easily. As he remained trapped in Silver’s psychic whole as Silver unleashed regular pulses of electrifying energy surges at him without loosening his grip at all, Sonic could hear the familiar voice of a certain ‘doctor’ from behind him:

“So how was your little walk, duchess?”

With it being accompanied by the sound of her scream, Sonic quickly turned his head around as best he could given his circumstances. He was able to just catch the sight of what had happened - Metal Sonic of all things had arrived onto the scene, grabbing hold of Elise before flying up to join Eggman who was remaining in that hovering ‘egg-mobile’ of his - the two proceeding to leave the scene by flying off into the distance immediately.

All Sonic could do was watch as they vanished over the ridges of the canyon.

“Elise!” he called out, trying to reach out with a hand - though his movements only infuriated Silver more, prompting him to motion his hand to create yet another pulse that practically knocked the wind right out of Sonic’s lungs. With a slight laugh as he watched Sonic succumb to this all so easily, Silver was most unafraid as he prepared his next move:

“It’s time to end this!” he said, motioning to do whatever his attack would have been - when something happened. With the sound of someone or something landing in the ground between the two of them, Sonic fell to the ground exhausted as Silver’s psychic grip over him finally ended. As Sonic recovered from his ordeal with heavy pants, he looked up to see Shadow now standing between himself and the mysterious white hedgehog; the latter being both shocked and furious about what was happening - not seeming to have the faintest idea who the black hedgehog standing in front of him was: “Who?! Mephiles?!” he exclaimed in outraged shock, “Why are you getting in the way?!”

Standing himself up, Shadow was swift to stay exactly who he was:

“I’m Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.”

As silence overtook the two of them, Shadow took the time to turn his head over to Sonic. Grateful for this save, Sonic gave Shadow both a smirk and a thumbs up before dashing off in the direction that he saw Eggmand and Metal Sonic fly off in. Knowing that Shadow could more than take care of himself, he was confident that he had more than enough time now to save Elise from the clutches of the mad roboticist and that robot double of his.

Even as he dashed up the canyon ridges at lightning fast speed though, he couldn’t help but have a few questions to ask about the scene he had just witnessed.

_ Why did that white guy think Shadow was named Mephiles? _

_ What world does that guy come from? _

_ Either way, I can't worry about that now! Gotta save Elise! _

  
  


As the flight of the egg-mobile left the scene of the canyon with it’s abandoned mines it quickly exchanged it for flying just a few feet above the canopy of the Soleanna island’s vast expanse of a temperate forest, the same forest that in it’s deepest recesses became a lively tropical jungle. As the aircraft cruised beneath the blue sky and it’s massive canvas of white clouds, beneath itself remained the lush greens of both trees and grass alike themselves all painted along the landscape besides large formations of rock - all while features such as lakes and rivers wre discreetly hidden beneath the thick cover of the trees, showing themselves only when the sunlight creaked in on them three the mass of leaves.

On the aircraft itself stood Eggman, Elise and Metal Sonic - the latter having just dropped Elise off onto it’s large cockpit not too long ago. Though he remained silent as the scene unfolded before him, watching as both Elise and his creator were standing in the flying machine just as it approached a significant clearing in the forest, with the duchess herself increasingly nearing the edge of the aircraft itself, her eyes not for a second ceasing to look at Eggman as she carefully walked herself not only out of the cockpit but also treaded precariously along the machine’s engines; alls Eggman himself was swift to ‘scold’ her:

“Now stop it!” he exclaimed, “You have nowhere to go!”

Elise, having more bravery in herself than she even knew she had, was quick to sharply tell him:

“I would rather  _ die _ than be your prisoner again!”

“Hmph” Eggman scoffed, “So what do you plan to do, duchess? Do you plan to jump?"

As the doctor gave her what was quite the smuggest look a man had ever given to a woman in the history of this timeline, Elise admittedly hesitated. At first not sure if this was such a smart idea after all, though as she looked for a few seconds down towards the forest so far below them. Paying close attention with her eyes she was able to just see not only the large clearing of tall wild grass they were passing over, but also the fact that not far behind them was a rapidly approaching and familiar blue blur of wind.

With a deep breathe and smug smile of her own, she took a few steps back until the heels of her shoes were quite literally right up against the edge of the aircraft, at which point she casually gave Eggman a brief bow:

“Farewell!” - and after saying that, she let herself fall over the side of the egg-mobile, much to the Doctor’s shock as before his eyes the Duchess of Soleanna was rapidly descending towards the ground.

Under most circumstances, that would have certainly been her final moments. Closing her eyes and letting gravity seal her fate as she fell like that of a wingless angel.

However, that most graciously was not what transpired - for she was caught in mid-air by the increasingly familiar touch of Sonic the Hedgehog, who not only caught her with his first jump but also landed back on the ground with her in his arms both within mere seconds. Once back in his arms, Elise couldn’t help but rejoice as she gently felt Sonic’s cheek as yet again his confident smirk was looking right back at her:

“Sonic!” she exclaimed, with Sonic not sharing a single word back - instead just proceeding onward with running back into the forest; fully aware though that Eggman was of course overlooking all of this from the cockpit of his aircraft. It was with an irritated growl that the not-so good doctor called out:

“You won’t get away that easily!” and of course, the first thing he turned to was none other than Metal Sonic as he demanded of his creation “Metal! Get Duchess Elise back here at once!”

Replying to his creator with a nod and a series of unintelligible electronic noises, Metal Sonic leaped from the aircraft and with the activation of the miniature jet engine he had for a torso blasted off in the direction of Sonic and Elise with speed mighty enough to plow through even thick canopy of the forest’s tallest trees as if he were a hurricane breaching the shoreline and rampaging onto land.

Of course, Metal Sonic was not the only robot Eggman intended to deploy.

  
  


Blazing through the forest and into the heart of where it became a more tropical jungle, Sonic and Elise both couldn’t help but feel absolutely invigorated as the wind blasted across their faces as though they were riding atop a speeding jet as it passed through the skies; although in Elise’s case that statement was in a sense accurate save for the part about being in the sky. Regardless, at Sonic’s speed it wasn’t long before the two traded the scenery of the forest for that of the jungle - exchanging a landscape of greens and browns for one with an absolute explosion of colors as those two were joined by a bountiful assortment of reds, violets, yellows, oranges and even blues in the form of the various fruits, flowers and more mysterious flora that they breezed by.

Dashing down what was a hill of brown running down between seas of green of either side, it was yet again mere seconds before the two of them found themselves launched high into the air when Sonic leaped himself off a fallen tree log that was positioned just before a wide river as to serve as a ramp of sorts, allowing Sonic with Elise in his arms to find themselves corralling into the white fog just immediately beneath the canopy of leaves and branches so far above them. Without even almost dropping her, Sonic used one of his hands to grab onto a hanging green vine - swinging on it he was able to use it to gain more momentum, enough for him to land on a tree branch that was thick enough for him to both stand and grind along the green covered top parts, but also curved and elongated enough to make such an action last.

Zooming through the clouds of the moist and humid fog as Sonic rode along these curved, elongated branches - jumping from one to another at a speed mimicking the swiftest of breezes, it was easy for both him and Elise to almost forget that they were being chased the entire time; though it was not all that long until their pursuer arrived on the scene.

Pulling up right beside the two as Sonic was balancing himself along one of the branches, it was the moment he looked and noticed Metal that the latter launched his first move.

Brandishing his metallic claws, Metal Sonic lunged himself at Sonic and the duchess with intent on striking Sonic clear in the face with a single swipe, though Sonic having seen Metal Sonic was able to match his lightning quick speed with that of his own, ducking his head down to avoid the attack. When Metal Sonic promptly increased his speed in a mad dash towards him from behind, Sonic with a smirk jumped both over him and off of the branch, onto another one that had been below it - even remarking to Metal Sonic as he grinded through what was a spiraling corkscrew formation of that very branch:

“Long time no see, Metal!” he called out, “Unfortunately, kinda busy here, we’ll catch up later!”

“Sonic…” Elise spoke up during this, still holding onto Sonic safely despite all this though the sound of concern heavy in her voice. Noticing this, Sonic spoke in a calmed tone so as to reassure her:

“Don’t worry, Elise” he said, “I got this!”

Seeing as the branch he was on curved downward towards the dark waters of the thick swamp beneath the two of them, Sonic instead jumped right at the beginning of that downward curve and instead landed on what was a large, half submerged root of a far greater tree - just above the aforementioned swamp water. With several other massive curved roots spiraling along overhead, Sonic ran along with this middle one best and as safely he could with Elise in his arms - due to him not being able to swim he did admittedly have to be careful.

However, his carefulness had to be mindful of the fact Metal Sonic was not defeated but merely irritated.

Metal Sonic glared at the blue blur, the source of much of his anger and his prime objective to destroy. Getting the chance to once more to face down the blue annoyance was a chance that he was going to enjoy. Deciding that he had no time for games, Metal brought out some of the heavy artillery that he had in his copied arsenal. “ _ Chaos...Spear!”  _ Focusing upon the data he had from the numeros scenes he had seen of Shadow, Metal called upon his own Chaos Energy power, the energy crackling along his body in the form of electricity. 

Then the electricity formed into multiple spear-shaped energy constructs at least nine in total, and with a motion of his hand Metal fired them off right at Sonic and Elise aiming to take out Sonic and if possible..only minorly injure the duchess that Dr. Eggman had ordered to be captured - again. The spears flew through the air, whistling as they flew right towards their intended target aiming to strike him down. 

“Whoa!” Sonic gasped, seeing the attack coming right at him and Elise. Thinking quickly, Sonic performed his quick step manuvier using his speed to dash from side to side while Elise kept a tight grip on his neck holding on for dear life as she didn’t want to fall or be caught by the metal duplicate of Sonic. “Hey! Now that’s not playing fair Metal! Who said you could rip off Shadow? He’s got enough competition, calling  _ me _ a faker! We don't need another!” 

If only Metal Sonic could still speak properly like he could when he was in his ‘Neo’ form, he could voice his irritation with Sonic with more than just various electronic noises that only vaguely sounded like a voice. No matter, he wasn’t going to let words from his greatest foe distract him from his objective.

Speaking of which:

With an electronic sound that was close to a growl, Metal Sonic moved to attack once more. Increasing his speed, he flew right around and right behind Sonic, his hands pulled back metallic finger/claws gleaming as he was right on top of Sonic and Elise inching closer and closer with each passing second getting right on top of them and was ready to rip the duchess right from Sonic’s arms.

Only to miss by a hair, as Sonic suddenly jumped up and flipped out of the way causing Metal to pass right by them completely. “You’re too slow Metal!” Teased Sonic, as he increased his speed and took off with a small burst of speed having to manage to keep control so as to not lose his grip on Elise. “Come on! I thought you could do better than that!” He called out, throwing a smirking glance at Metal who now was right behind them. 

As fast as Sonic was, Metal Sonic was capable of matching his speed - tailing him no matter how many of those long spirals of branches he ran and grinded himself along. No matter how many he jumped to, Metal Sonic was right behind him. Eventually though, Sonic’s ability to evade the swampy water of the jungle floor was running out as he saw one of these enormous roots ending with nothing but a large opening of water with trees on either side. Just as Sonic and Elise both became concerned with their ability to proceed, Metal Sonic capitalized on this by charging up the laser cannon that he had in the center of his jet engine torso; making sure that all of his systems were locked right onto Sonic’s back.

“Sonic, we’re not going to make it!” Elise called out as she saw her and her savior approaching the very edge of the algae-covered bark, only for Sonic to ever confidently answer back to her:

“Or so it seems!”

It was then that, just as Metal Sonic fired his chest laser, Sonic yet again leaped into the air - his gloved hand grabbing onto a vine hanging from the above canopy that he managed to spot that was just within his reach. Using his velocity to swing on it while keeping Elise on one arm, he watched as Metal Sonic’s laser managed to scorch only the root he had been running on - though of course Metal was more than capable of charging at the vine he was swinging on with intent to cut it from above.

Which of course, was precisely what the machine went ahead with doing.

Sonic however, retaliated gracefully - and most swiftly, by swinging from vine to vine just as fast as Metal Sonic could slice them with his claws. Though it was slightly nerve wracking as the only thing beneath himself and Elise now were merky, boggy waters - he still managed to have a smirk on his face as he knew well he was avoiding Metal Sonic by mere seconds with each vine he swung to - so long as he had Elise with him.

If Metal was able to show off facial expressions his mood would currently be enraged. Time and time again Sonic had managed to evade his attacks, and continued to mock him, something that as always enraged the metallic duplicate to no end. In his own “Mind” Metal’s focus was right on Sonic and he began building up power, throughout this entire chase Metal had been building up his energy knowing that he had to do  _ something  _ to bring Sonic down and insure the capture of the duchess and bring her back to Eggman. 

As such, he was left with no choice but to use his final trick, one that he was positive that would bring about the end of this little chase and bring down Sonic once and for all. 

  1. _Maximum Overdrive._



As soon as he activated this ability, he curled in one himself as his eyes glowed brighter than before. His entire frame shook and crackled as he was overloading his circuitry, causing blue sparks to emit from his very body. As the sparks grew more and more, his eyes shone with power and soon the sparks from an energy field around Metal Sonic’s body that exploded outward into a large orange colored energy shield, that was letting out electrical sparks the entire time as he flew even faster towards Sonic and the duchess; his speed accelerating even higher than before. 

“Sonic!” Elise cried out, looking behind to see just how swiftly Metal Sonic was gaining on the two of them, “He’s gaining on us!”

“Don’t worry, just hang on tight, I’ve spotted a landing!” and having said that, Sonic made due on making it. Instead of swinging to another vine, he instead aimed his feet for what appeared to be a partially submerged temple - it’s grey stone absolutely covered with green vegetation, if not heavily cracked by trees growing both from and through it. Either way, it made for the safest location to land on - far more so than the water anyway.

Though one would be a fool for thinking Metal Sonic would give up so easily. With maximum overdrive still active he chased Sonic, adamant that Sonic’s little detour only gave him but a few seconds. He would follow Sonic right into those ruins, and even bring the whole thing down if he must.

Even as Sonic rushed deep into the dark tunnels and halls of the ancient temple, he could hear very well the sound of Metal Sonic’s jet engine body blazing not far behind him.

And he was right, as just a few seconds later did Metal Sonic still encased in full maximum overdrive arrive on the scene right behind him - lighting up the otherwise entirely dark temple hall - exposing the decrepit floor, walls, columns and all of the various aged, withering statues that resembled solemnly cloaked monks with hoods in the shape of an eagle’s head. Of course, the light these things were all being exposed under was anything but good news.

However, unknown to Sonic and Elise. Metal Sonic was doing his best to try and keep V. Maximum Overdrive going as the attack while powerful and dangerous, was also draining. Even though all of the statues and even columns he passed by crumbled to rubble and dust as he flew past them at the speed of a military jet, he knew it wouldn’t be for much longer - and that if he tried to push it much further he would be out of his reserve power as well. As a result, he was looking to make this  _ count _ .

His eyes gleamed, as he increased the power just enough to give him a further boost to his speed, gaining more and more ground and getting closer. He could already tell that his systems were at their limit, and he was close to overheating. But he refused to give in, he was not going to lose this time. With one last burst of power made despite the system warnings he boosted himself one time more, his shield growing larger in size while in turn releasing more and more bolts of electricity off his body as he got ever closer towards his targets - his locked firmly on the speeding hedgehog’s back as he ran ahead of him with the duchess still in his arms.

Turning back to see what Metal was doing, Sonic knew immediately that he had to think as fast as he could run if he wanted to protect both Elise and himself.

_ Gotta think fast, gotta think fast…. _

_ Hm….think I got it! _

As if a lightbulb went off in his head, Sonic figured he knew just what to do. He let Metal Sonic catch up to him - or at least almost catch up to him. He could hear Elise making noises of fear just as much he could the sound of Metal’s electricity as well as jet engine, but he knew things would be alright - for the literal moment Metal Sonic was practically a centimeter away from touching him with his electric shield did Sonic make an incredibly sharp turn down the nearest corridor that he could see - so sharp that Metal Sonic didn’t have the time to respond to it in time. Even Sonic himself almost slid on the ground and just barely did he prevent himself from dropping Elise; his robot doppelganger on the other hand had completely missed his chance to take the turn and his attempt to correct that made him accelerate uncontrollably into a wall instead.

Upon impact, there was an explosion accompanied by an roaring eruption of smoke, as the two could only stare at the section of the wall that had now been destroyed leaking a hole right where Metal Sonic had cracked in head first and from what could be seen there wasn’t any signs of Sonic’s metal double to be seen. Or rather there was a sole sign, and that was Metal’s hand poking up from the pile of rubble where his body had crashed into, it was motionless and unmoving; showing that Metal wouldn’t be getting up any time soon. It was abundantly clear that Metal had overworked himself and as a result was completely shut down not long after impact, his body immediately motioning to recharge his energy; meaning that Sonic and Elise were safe - for the time being, anyway.

Neither of them would really know this of course, since Sonic simply continued on his way through the ancient ruins rather than bothering to turn back.

Neither would they see or pay attention to any of the carvings along the wall, either. Such as the one on the wall Metal Sonic had crashed into - which had been a mysterious image, showing what appeared to be a bald, fully humanoid figure being struck by fire from what were seemingly muscular figures, with large shields on one arm, presumably some type of cannon on the other, spikes coming out of their backs, and vaguely falcon like heads. Though most of this wall spanning mural had been destroyed by Metal Sonic’s impact, he was able to translate one of the ancient words on it just before shutting down - largely via wholly automated systems.

_ Radion…. _

With Sonic and Elise though, they were just happy not only to have shaken off Metal Sonic, but also within a few seconds more have the light at the other end of the temple in view - rapidly approaching as Sonic’s feet made their way forward like that of the wind. Elise couldn’t help but smile as she said to her most frequent rescuer:

“You did it!” she said, “That robot’s not following us anymore; we’re safe!”

“Heheh” Sonic chuckled, “Told ya!”

Once Sonic and Elise exited the temple, they were met not with more of the jungle, but instead an extremely beautiful sight; not only was it increasingly dusk by the time they got to see the sky again, with a sunset deeply in progress complete with a horizon of deep orange along the edge of a purple-black sky; but the landscape before them was absolutely stunning. Once leaving the decaying stone tiles of the temple, they were greeted with soft green grass and the view of a massive, still lake surrounded by equally healthy trees. Many of the trees, including one in particular that was sitting peacefully atop a hill, were decorated with gorgeous pink cherry blossom flowers that at times blew in the air with each soft breeze that passed. Approaching that hillside tree and putting Elise down under it’s shade, Sonic couldn’t help but whistle at taking all of this in:

“ _ Whew! _ Now this is what I call a view!”

“Yeah, it sure is beautiful over here” Elise remarked, though quickly did she become worried of something as she stood beside Sonic taking all of the scenery in, “But it’s getting dark, I should probably get back to the castle now…”

“Relax, Elise!” Sonic assured her, “Let’s take a breather and relax a while we can, no need to be in a rush!”

Elise nodded her head in response to that, and just as Sonic she tried to turn her attention to the beauty surrounding the two of them rather than focusing on the more negative aspects of their situation. Having spent most of her life sheltered from the outside world and rarely ever leaving the Castle let alone Castle Town district, she could safely say she’d never before seen so much of her kingdom - let alone had this much of a thrill in her entire life. Though she could do without the constant kidnapping, she couldn’t deny that her adventure with Sonic thus far has been quite the ride.

“You know Sonic” she started to say, “This entire adventure-”

“I’m afraid it is about to come to an end!” - that voice was not from Sonic, nor from Metal Sonic. Instead, interrupting them was the sound of Eggman’s familiar voice, accompanied by his laughter immediately after. Both Sonic and Elise gasped as they turned to the direction of his voice - which was admittedly sounding like it was itself joined with a slightly electronic filter; which was of course because his voice was echoing from a massive robot hovering over the lake.

Sonic clenched his fists as he looked upon the behemoth that was the Egg Genesis:

Best described as a mobile, aerial battle station the size of a ‘small’ military ship the Egg Genesis was an orange colored machine with grey-white accents that sported a glowing circular laser cannon on its underside, and four small ‘arms’ that hosted spotlights that themselves doubled as additional lasers. Between these spotlights four were massive arms that extended far out from the robot’s actual body - and the front sides of each were lined with missile pods concealed beneath flaps matching the robot’s main body color - more than enough to dispatch an entire army with just one of its arms. In the center of it all was a circular retractable head that could hide itself in the center of its body - though when exposed had a front ‘face’ that was essentially a black rectangle with two green eyes, two red lights in between them.

Looking up at this foe as it hovered over center of the lake, Sonic turned to Elise and told her:

“Elise, stay there, I’ll be right back!” he said, while gesturing to her to stay under the shade of the cherry blossom tree - knowing she had no power against this mammoth of a machine, she nodded in response and motioned to hide behind the tree’s trunk for a form of protection.

With Elise in some form of safety, Sonic was more than ready to take on this ‘toy’ of the not so good doctor’s.

As a massive barrage of what had to be 40 missiles roared from the machine’s arms was launched all aiming for Sonic, the blue blur got right to work. Racing along the circular ground that surrounded the lake, making sure to jump over the river that fed into it, he built up more than enough speed to ensure that all forty of those missiles struck the ground rather than himself - as close they came, they each of them and their resulting explosions were  _ just _ shy of striking him. Once Sonic had made a joke of its first missile barrage, he quickly thought of a way to get on top of the machine - and released he had to think of a strategy fast as the laser beam firing from it’s blinking underside was charging. 

_ How to get up to that thing….oh, I got it! Piece of cake! _

Without wasting any more time thinking, Sonic ran not towards the machine but rather at the nearest tree to him. Running right up it’s trunk while swiftly, perfectly avoiding any branches that got in his way he managed to reach the top of it in no time - allowing him a perfect view of the robot’s head just as the laser from beneath was fired with a single shot right at the tree. Though the tree naturally bursted into the flames and collapsed due to the resulting explosion right to it’s center, this was to Sonic’s benefit as he used the momentum of the blast to time a jump just right so that he was flung into the air towards the machine’s head. 

Once Sonic’s feet made their landing however, the machine immediately ducked it’s head into it’s body - the blur blur taking note of the fact the center of the head had a series of flashing yellow lights that just barely resembled something of a targeting reticle. As the Egg Genesis was unleashing yet another full on barrage of missiles the moment Sonic realized that, he knew exactly what was happening.

_ Uh-oh...I, woah, AH! _

Sonic let out a gasp of surprise when the robot’s head perked itself back up at such a speed that it flung Sonic in the air like a pancake from a frying pan - Elise who was watching this covered her mouth with both hands, shaking with anxiety as she watched Sonic be put into this seemingly helpless position, outside of his curled up state; entirely defenseless high in the increasingly dark sky as an army’s worth of raging homing missiles blazed their way towards him.

Just as it looked like it was the end for Sonic however, did something out of the ordinary happen.

It started with the sound of great roaring from the sky, the growling of thunder. It ended with a strike of blue lightning. Right onto Sonic as she remained hurdling into the sky. 

“Sonic!” Elise gasped, her eyes as wide as possible as she witnessed this occur - all she knew was that Sonic, her savior, had just been struck by a sudden, loud strike of blue lightning - with the light so bright that she had to shield her eyes from it before long, rendering her wholly unable to see what was happening. Though in all fairness, not even Sonic could see what was happening to him; he was in the thick of it.

All he knew is that as much it hurt for him to be struck by lightning, as much it stung and burned, there was also a peace about the experience - an empowering one. It felt as though while it did hurt, the feeling of pain was overshadowed swiftly by a sensation of what felt like him having extra power injected into him, as though some silent mysterious force was connecting itself to him; a force that seemed more benevolent than anything he’d felt in his life up to this point. But not only all of that, but it granted him things far greater than mere feelings. On his right ring finger he noticed a golden ring appear right on that same finger - a shining, golden ring that had had a blue circle on the top of it, a golden lightning bolt symbol in the middle. He had no idea what this ring meant, but from it he felt a tremendous power - surging across his body in the form of blue electricity. 

With this power, he easily vanquished his foe.

Curling into his ball form while channeling this mysterious electric energy, he fired himself down like he was a bolt of lightning in his own right, his velocity becoming super strength as he tore clean through all of the missiles like a freight train through unfortunate vehicles. Not only that, but he charged clean through the center of the Egg Genesis as well - ramming clean through it’s head and coming out it’s glowing underside, with the machine exploding in a spectacular, sky covering show mere seconds later as Sonic landed practically instantly at Elise’s side to watch as the roaring, flaming remains of the machine collapsed immediately into the lake with tremendous splashes, the blinding light of the explosion fading as smaller explosions took its place until all of the robot’s once gargantuan pieces were submerged between the waters - which while certainly in a state of chaotic splashes and ripples, actually calmed down once more not long after the machine’s destruction.

As Sonic and Elise looked over the scene, though there were now towers of smoke from the downed Egg Genesis as it slowly sunk to the bottom of the lake, the scene was still quickly returning to the tranquility they had experienced before it interrupted them - only with the addition of crackling flames in the distance. Though what they were talking about of course had changed, with Elise exclaiming to Sonic:

“Sonic!” she said, turning to him, “That was amazing, how did you do that? What was that lightning?”

“Ya know, the funny thing is, I have no idea!” Sonic answered, “That lightning seemed to give me a lot of extra speed, and I didn’t think that was even possible! Also gave me this pretty sweet looking ring too!” he then showed the duchess the aforementioned ring, “Wonder how. Kinda looks like the logo that this guy I know, Barry, has on his suit!”

Elise looked at the ring, though she didn’t recognize it at all - it didn’t mean anything to her personally, though she still nodded and said:

“Well, whatever it is, I’m just glad you’re alright, Sonic.”

Smirking while giving her a thumbs up, Sonic couldn’t but say:

“O’course I’m alright! It'll be a long time before one of Eggman’s old hunks of bolts take me down!”

Elise and Sonic shared a few chuckles with each other, before Sonic took a look back over at the sinking remains of his downed enemy, and then at the sky that was now at the tail end of a sunset - the sounds of crickets and frogs become active around them were swiftly all becoming apparent. Sonic couldn’t help but enjoy the cold, peaceful breeze of the night air and the sight of the moon replacing the sun in the sky up above before returning his gaze back to Elise:

“You know, that was a real gutsy move back there, jumping outta that egghead’s shape like that!” he said in a tone of admiration coupled with a thumbs up, with Elise proudly answering:

“Well, I was desperate, and I had to get away. I owe you a lot, Sonic.”

Sonic couldn’t help but smile - chuckling as if for once he didn’t know quite what to say in response to that. Though he didn’t have to in the end, as Elise’s attention shifted over to the cherry blossom tree that remained completely unharmed through the entire ordeal, still blowing some of it’s beautiful bright flowers into the air as the breeze of the infant night grazed it’s many branches. It put a smile on Elise’s face as she held out her arms just to back in the fact this piece of beauty was unharmed.

“You know” she said, “I’ve never seen so many flowers before...have you visited many wonderful places before, Sonic?”

“Heh, yeah” Sonic remarked, smirking as he folded his arms up, basking in the returning tranquility of this spot himself. Though then, Elise’s voice was overtaken by a clear tone of sadness as a realization dawned on her in the midst of this moment:

“Once you defeat Eggman, you’ll leave, won’t you?”

Sonic didn’t respond vocally, though he did unfold his arms and turn to Elise - looking at her and giving her a calm, silent nod. Even though this answer wasn’t what she would prefer, she didn’t seem to let it bother her as she replied with a smile still on her face:

“Though I’ve been frightened many times, I’ve also enjoyed this adventure. It allowed me to be something other than a princess, or a duchess. I was able to be myself, Elise.”

“It sounds like being a duchess isn’t that easy.”

“It isn’t sometimes” Elise answered, “But I  _ love _ this country. Everyone in the castle, the children, all my citizens really. The same love my late father and mother had….”

_ Don’t cry, Elise _

_ Become a strong duchess, who doesn’t cry no matter what happens. _

Her father’s words echoing in her mind, she finished her small speech off simply:

“And so, I do my best to protect my country.” turning to Sonic, she said to the blue hedgehog, “I understand everything my parents said to me now. Sonic, if you leave here to go on another adventure...remember this place.”

Smiling as he crunched his right glove into a gentle fist, Sonic replied with but one word:

“ _ Definitely. _ ”

It was then that an emotion of sadness overcame Elise for a moment as she looked at Sonic, turning away from him with a soft gasp and instead looking at the tree again - doing her best not to cry as the emotions began to get the better of her. Amazingly, she was indeed strong enough to not do so, though Sonic of course noticed this and in a concerned tone:

“Elise?” he asked, with her taking a breath before assuring him:

“I’m fine...sorry…”

_ I mustn’t cry… _

_ I can’t.... _

Though she didn’t cry, she did swiftly turn to face Sonic, getting onto her knees and giving him a surprise hug - one that he returned, patting her gently on the back. Noticing well how she was feeling, he was quick to calmly say to her:

“Elise…” he said calmly, “smile!”

Parting from her hug as she continued to look at him at his level, his calming voice was enough to get her smile - the two exchanging a few nods with each other. With everything seemingly right with the world once again, it was then that Sonic, taking one of her hands, said:

“Alright, let’s get you back to the castle now!”


	15. Interference

It was all so surreal.

Walking through the halls of her ornate, polished castle, on that island so far away from the mainland. Surrounded by her guardsmen, being escorted quietly to her bed chambers while watching the ferry carrying her savor travel it’s way back towards Castle Town. All while the light of the midnight moon reigned supreme of the currently dark sky, the lights from the New City district but a distant aura off in the horizon.

Was this really it?

Was it all over?

Is this the last she’ll ever see of the first real friend she’s ever had?

Even as she yet again felt the fine silks of her bed sheets, she still wasn't sure how much of this she could believe. The only thing she knew was that at the very least, she enjoyed the adventure her and Sonic had these past few days. In her heart she knew from the very beginning that it wouldn’t last forever - she couldn’t keep tied to the nation just as much as she knew she could never leave it or it’s people. Yet a large part of her did indeed wish, even as she rested her eyes, that it would prove to never end. Or at least, not come to an end so easily.

How ironic those thoughts of hers would prove to be.

Awaking from her slumber some hours later, and getting dressed in freshly washed clothes - though it was effectively a replica of the ones she had previously been wearing, she was escorted for the first time in days towards her throne room. Surrounded by her guards and having both of her ladies-in-waiting, Anna and Sophia, flanking her still seemed so unreal after these events. Passing through the halls of her castle quietly as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired these past few days at all. The only thing she really paid attention to during this walk were the things the woman who’d been serving as regent until her return, Anna, was saying. Even then only because she knew they were of the utmost importance:

“We’re all very happy to have you back in the palace, your highness!” Anna exclaimed happily, “But as you probably know, we can’t exactly risk you making public appearances until we’re sure that Eggman has been taken care of.”

“Yes, I know” Elise nodded, “And, I imagine that is why G.U.N. hasn’t left yet?”

“Yes, that’s why they’re maintaining both their blockade and their no-fly zone” Anna answered, “Though they aren’t responding to our communications anymore, which I find both rude and a tad unsettling to be honest.”

“Unsettling?”

“Well, you know what happened a few years ago when they tried to overthrow the Queen of Bialya.”

“I’m nothing like that woman, Anna” Elise shook her head at the thought of that comparison. She remembered the incident Anna was speaking of, though it happened when she was still young; from what she gathered there was a scandal involving Bialya harboring weapons of some kind. In any case, the invasion laughably failed due to literally all of the invading forces going MIA. Even though she ‘won’ though, it didn’t change the opinion that Bialya’s queen was more a dictator than she was royalty.

Elise couldn’t help but add to what she said with but one simple sentence:

“Unlike her, I actually care about my people.”

“I know that, duchess, and speaking of that I actually have some important documents from Lord Regis for your approval-”

Before the door leading into the throne room could even be opened by the hand of two Soleanna guardsmen, it was instead torn to pieces by explosions courtesy of missiles from the other side of it - making Anna, Sophia and Elise all gasp or even squeal in fear as a swarm of Egg Gunners quickly surrounded them before the smoke from the door’s remnants even cleared. The guardsmen, though shaking in fear, surrounded the duchess and the other two ladies in a protective manner while brandishing either spears or handguns as their sole lines of defense.

It wasn’t precisely intimidating for the leader of this squadron however. 

Metal Knuckles slowly emerged from the smoke and dust as it cleared, with the shadows of even more robots immediately behind him. As his name implies, he was the robotic doppelganger of a certain red echidna in the same vein that Metal Sonic was for the one and only blue hedgehog, complete with red ‘dreadlocks’ that draped from his head. He sported a jet engine body that had only a single white crescent stripe along his chest rather than a central cavity, and rather than fingers he sported only two knife-like blades on the ends of either arm. As his green eyes glowed ever menacingly, the sight of him proved more than enough to send all of the Soleanna guardsmen running away from the scene in fear, even dropping all of their weapons as they cowardly ran for their lives. Anna, Elise and Sophia were all appalled by this, with Elise even shouting back at them:

“What are you doing?!”

Though she received no answer.

There was no time for anything else to be said either, since Metal Knuckles was slowly approaching the trio of women who remained. They were shaking in fear, of course, though they still did their best to stand their ground powerless as they were against such metallic foes.

Though Metal Knuckles himself was silent, speaking to his subordinates only in computerized, digital noises, he still had a message from the doctor to let the duchess in on and he made absolute sure that she received it. Pulling out from one of his hands and holding it firmly in the grasp of his claws was what appeared to be a card - though not an ordinary one, for just as soon as the women pondered what it was did it display a holographic image of Eggman himself that swiftly began to speak in the firmest of tones:

“Duchess Elise the third, ruler of Soleanna: by refusing to negotiate with me, you have forced me to take  _ drastic  _ actions. Surrender peacefully to me now, or else I will have Metal Knuckles here level your entire country from beneath its own foundations until nothing rubble remains!”

After that, the holographic image vanished and Metal Knuckles let the card fall onto the floor - though his cold robotic eyes were silently fixated entirely on Elise. The machine himself though, remained idle. The deal had been said - either she comes voluntarily, or he sets out and destroys her entire city. 

“Duchess Elise…” Anna and Sophia both spoke in between their quivering of fear, looking to their monarch with grave concern as she stared back at Metal Knuckles with as headstrong a look as he was giving her. Though she did have to take in the deepest of breaths, her decision was clear as she firmly said:

“I can not allow harm to come to my people….it’s my duty to protect this country and all the people in it, there is no other choice.”

_ Of course  _ it wouldn’t be over so easily....

  
  


By the time the sun had yet again risen to its place in the sky to mark the next day, Elise had already been returned to her island castle since just past midnight - news that made the vast majority of Soleanna’s citizens relieved, hoping that this meant Eggman along with the economic disaster of the G.U.N. blockades were both on the way out. However, the doctor was rather silent thus far today and the ships in the distance of the Soleanna harbors hadn’t budged but a single inch. Despite that though, life in the city-state itself continued on as normal as it possibly could; there was no public celebration of Elise’s return so as to not unintentionally summon the doctor again, though across New City and the Castle Town districts alike there was an air of happiness across any and all citizens. Even the accordion man was jollier than he usually was. 

Sonic, though a ‘tourist’, was no exception to this either.

After returning Elise safely to her castle the previous night, and getting some well deserved rest, Sonic was up at the break of a beautiful mid-day; the sky was blue, sun shining just off from the center of the sky, and everything across the city’s Castle Town district was alight with its light. The first thing Sonic set out to do once he woke up from his nap was head out to find something to eat for breakfast - the grumbling of his stomach being motivation enough.

Sitting himself down at one of the outdoor squares in the Castle Town, specifically just outside the doors of a restaurant of sorts; albeit one that had aforementioned outdoor seating so that he could still enjoy the beautiful weather of this day. Taking a seat close to one of the windows, he quickly found himself as the center of attention around the place. He was greeted by tourists and locals alike as though he were a celebrity - he couldn’t help but smirk just overhearing the applause and praise he was getting from the people for his latest effort to save the world. This even extended to the servers, with the waitress who walked over to his table responding to him like so:

“Hello sir, what would you like to-” and then she gasped, eyes widening as she layed her eyes onto Sonic casually sitting at ‘her’ table, “Oh my gosh, it’s you! Sonic the Hedgehog! The blue wind! I can’t believe it’s you!”

“Heh, got that right!” Sonic replied, winking, “So, will you be taking my order today?”

“Oh, well, I guess I am!” the young woman couldn’t help but gush, taking the order of a real superhero, “Well, um, what would you like, Mr. Sonic?”

“Please” Sonic insisted, “Just call me Sonic! And as for food, I think I’ll be a little adventurous today and have some pasta puttanesca!”

“Excellent choice, Sonic!” the waitress was sure to write that down on the small notepad she had with her, saying to the speedster with a warm smile; “Anything you’d like to drink?”

“Just some water’s fine.”

“Alright then, I’ll be back shortly! Thank you for ordering!”

“Heh, thank you for delivering the food!” Sonic softly chuckled as she walked back into the building, allowing him another bout of peace and quiet, kicking back in the chair with his hands behind his head as he closed his eyes - enjoying a kind of moment that he hadn’t really had much of these past few days. A very welcome moment indeed; though one that was interrupted just as quickly as it began when he heard yet another feminine voice, though one that was not exactly familiar to him at all:

“Excuse me, um, Sonic?”

Opening an eye, he saw this woman was a redheaded human; green eyes, slender body. She was dressed in rather casual attire, and Sonic got a ‘tourist’ vibe from her. He didn’t really know it yet, but this was indeed Iris West who was approaching him, asking of him:

“Mind if I take a seat?”

“Not at all” Sonic remarked, “Knock yourself out~. So, I take it you wanna talk to me?”

“Thanks...my name’s Iris by the way.”

“And mine’s Sonic!” the Hedgehog exclaimed happily, “Though, I take it you already knew that.”

“Of course” Iris laughed slightly, “What with how many times you’ve saved the world and all.”

“Heh, yeah, I get that alot.”

“I bet, but I actually do have something important to ask” Iris got right to the point, “Have you seen a, Barry, on your adventure to save the duchess?”

“Barry? You wouldn’t happen to mean a human who happens to run almost as fast as me, would you? His name happened to be Barry!”

“So you have run into him?” a look of relief passed over Iris, “I’m glad; he’s my husband, and I was just a little worried cuz I haven’t seen him these past few days - last he told me was that he was running off to help you with Elise after the festival.”

“Heh, don’t worry!” Sonic assured her, “I haven’t seen him in a good while, but I have a pretty good feeling he’s a-ok! Seemed like it the last time I did run into him!”

“Well, that’s a relief” Iris replied, still smiling happily, “So, he hasn’t been with you?”

“Nah” Sonic remarked, shrugging as he said “I think he’s mostly been hangin’ around Shadow. For what reason, I don’t know, but hey it’s his choice!”

“Ah, I see…”

A moment of silence then overtook both Iris and Sonic, as the latter went back to quietly relaxing while the former was at a loss of things to say - understanding that was about the extent of what Sonic knew of her husband’s whereabouts. Only when she thought back to the conversation she and Barry had before he went off on this adventure in the first place did she break the moment of silence with one more question:

“Sonic, do you mind if I ask you another question?”

“Sure, shoot!”

“Well....most the world knows about you is that you showed up a few years ago to stop Dr. Eggman from conquering the world when there was nobody else to do it. From destroying his ‘Scrap Brain’ base to downing his Death Eggs; yet, there’s always been something I realize now that we never quite put much thought into….where did you come from?”

“Huh?” Sonic perked up, eyes widening as he was asked that question, wondering what it was that this human woman was referring to, “What do you mean?”

“I mean...do you really come from this planet, or, do you come from somewhere else?”

“Oh, you’re asking if I’m an alien or not?”

“Yes..I guess I am...I’m sorry if it’s an uncomfortable question.”

“Heh, nah” Sonic assured her, putting a smile back on his face, “It’s alright. As for your answer though, to be honest, I can’t really say. I just remember always being on this planet myself, so I just assume it’s my home!”

“What do you mean?”

Just as Iris was left more confused and with more questions, the two were interrupted by the sound of another voice - one very familiar to Sonic, calling out to them while rushing towards them:

“Sonic!”

It was none other than Tails, the two-tailed fox having Knuckles and Espio trailing behind him as they all arrived at the table Sonic and Iris were seated at.

“Sonic!” Tails said, stopping just before the table, “I’m glad I finally found you!”

“Tails!” Sonic replied, “What’s up, buddy?”

“Something terrible just happened!”

“Huh?”

“A giant G.U.N. aircraft carrier just exploded off the shore!” Tails exclaimed, the news shocking both Iris and Sonic, with Iris herself gasping while Sonic remarked:

“Whoah, exploded?! So Eggman’s taking on G.U.N. now?”

“We’re not sure!” Tails replied, “All we know so far is that the ship was just fine a few moments ago, before it just suddenly exploded and began sinking into the ocean! From the looks of it, there was some type of battle going on all over it’s deck before it went!”

“Well” Sonic said as he turned back to a stunned Iris, “Looks like I gotta go! When the waitress comes back with the food, you can tell her Sonic said you can have it on the house!”

Iris had no time to reply as within mere seconds Sonic was but a blue wind blazing away from the scene, with Tails, Knuckles and Espio trailing right behind. All she could really do was hope that soon Barry would be able to come back home to her.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Espio meanwhile had even more pressing things to worry about, as they were now rushing through the castle town to where Sonic and Tails had left that biplane of theirs along the shoreline of the Wave Ocean beach. Sonic and Tails were going ahead with Tails using his two tails to fly along just a few feet behind Sonic, though Knuckles & Espio were further behind as they were not nearly as fast - though they still followed nevertheless. Of course, Sonic still reached the spot on the beach where the plane was parked at a good amount of time before the others arrived - all of the surroundings such as the town and the caverns he passed through to get back onto the beach, let alone the beach itself, passed by him like a fast moving breeze of the wind.

There was nothing too special about where the plane was parked. The front of it was shined on by the sun, though the back of it was protected by the shade of a few palm trees as it sat upon a small peninsula of sand - the ebbing waves of salt water surrounding it.

Having reached the plane first, Sonic used this moment to lean gently on the plane’s red-yellow body, though there were grains of sand blown by wind onto it’s double-deck wings with those futuristic green lights along them, propeller and even the leather seat inside the cockpit. Sonic took notice and decided to use his speed to generate enough wind to blow that sand off of the plane, cleaning it enough to make it spotless by the time Tails, Knuckles and Espio arrived.

As out of breath that they were, Sonic still couldn’t resist a witty remark as he remained casually leaning against the plane’s hull.

“About time you guys showed up!”

While Tails couldn’t help but laugh, Knuckles ‘barked’ back:

“Easy for you to say, Sonic.”

Sonic just smirked right back at Knuckles, ever the cocky hero. But he still got right down to business after that comment anyway:

“So, what’s Eggman doing blowing up aircraft carriers now?”

“I don’t know!” Tails said as he stepped into the plane’s pilot seat and began to turn on it’s engines, it’s propellers swiftly turning from inaction to a state of rapid circular movements, “But it might be him getting desperate to end G.U.N.’s blockade!”

Sonic then jumped himself onto the top of the plane’s wings, him and Tails of course having to now raise their voices as to be heard over the sound of the engine and propellers as Sonic responded:

“A blockade they started because he thought it’d be a good idea to kidnap Soleanna’s duchess!” it was then that Sonic turned over to Knuckles and Espio, “Hey, you guys coming along too or you staying here?”

“Me and Espio need to get back to Angel Island!” Knuckles explained, a tone of seriousness in his voice even though he had to raise it so that he could be heard, Espio nodding quietly as he said, “Vector’s let me know that they were attacked not too long ago, we need to make sure everyone’s alright!”

Sonic could tell by the look in the two’s eyes that this wasn’t something he should make a quip about, and so with a nod he said;

“Well hop on then, we’ll make a quick stop at Angel Island to drop you guys off!”

Knuckles and Espio didn’t hesitate to jump on the plane’s wings on either side of Sonic, just in time for the two-tailed fox put on a pair of goggles and began motioning the aircraft across the sand, taking flight into the clear blue sky just as they reached the edge of the shore. 

Just as the plane increased in altitude and began to reach itself high into the soft white clouds that once were above them however, there was a static that Tails began overhearing on the plane’s radio. A static mixed in with a feminine voice trying to speak through to him

_ “Save……Elise.” _

“What the-?” Tails asked himself as the message in static kept ringing, Tails adjusting some of the knobs until the voice was able to come in just clear enough for the voice to speak a complete sentence.

“The duchess is in Eggman’s custody again!” the voice of Soleanna’s regent and lady-in-waiting Anna, said through the other side of the radio; “If you can hear this message Sonic, Tails, or anyone, please rescue her; a squad of robots came to the palace and demanded her immediate surrender. They took off with her towards the Kingdom Valley, please hurry!” at that point the message cut out; a worried Tails looked up to where Sonic was standing above him:

“Sonic…”

“I heard!” Sonic replied, then looking at Knuckles and Espio, “I guess that pit stop isn’t going to come as quickly as I thought it was.”

“It’s alright” Espio said with a nod, “I’m fine with prioritizing saving Elise first.”

“Knuckles?”

As Sonic turned to his red friend, Knuckles just silently nodded, not saying anything - though in agreement with Espio.

“Alright then!” Sonic replied, “Tails, think you’ll be able to track where they’re taking Elise off to?”

“I should be able to using the radar!” Tails answered, “She said they’re heading towards Kingdom Valley; that’s where the original castle of Soleanna is! That must be where Eggman keeps his Egg Carrier!” 

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s crush ‘em!” Knuckles said; pounding his fists - getting ready to battle. Without any further words, the plane with it’s four inhabitants took off in the direction of where the Kingdom Valley was located - according to Tails’ GPS systems of course. Sonic, Knuckles & Espio had to make sure they held on tightly to the wings as they soared well above the grounds of the beach below them.

  
  


_ SOLEANNA CASTLE TOWN.... _

Back at the castle town, Iris was still seated at the table just outside that small diner - even though she did indeed get that ‘free’ water and dish courtesy of Sonic, and though it was delicious, it still didn’t make her any less worried about Barry’s whereabouts - she still hasn’t seen him since he left to help save the day from Eggman. As such, she hasn’t left Soleanna either and nor has she stopped thinking about her husband either. Often she found herself twirling her fork in the pasta longer than ‘usual’ before going in to take a bite, her mind too occupied with other things. 

  
  


‘ _ This...I know I should be used to these things, but this started as an ordinary vacation _ ’ Iris said in thought as she sighed to herself, ‘ _ This is still so much to take in; Barry being the Flash, there apparently being an entire timeline that got erased, finding out I had two nephews that nobody knows what happened to, let alone all this starting after Eggman showed up again. All after a full scale alien invasion last year! Part of me wishes Barry had said he wanted to go back home and let Sonic handle it like always but, I can’t fault him for trying to do the right thing.’ _

Iris gave another twirl to the pasta, sinking her teeth into another bite when suddenly a flash of not blue but red wind gust hurled past her - not once but twice, Iris was pretty dumbfounded, but but her surprise was more pleasant when she saw the unmistakable face of Barry - albeit in full crimson Flash costume by now; accompanied by the yellow-red Wally right beside him. Iris gave a smile:

“Barry!” she said, “You’re alright!”

“YOU are alright, that’s good.” Barry replied, with a tone of relief. He knew she was alive in this timeline of course, but after everything he’s been through he’s relieved to have this moment. 

“Where have you been?” Iris asked, looking right up at her husband “It’s been close to two days since I last saw you!”

“Doing fine for the most part, outside of all the craziness going on; honestly pretty standard superhero stuff really” not wanting to worry her with all of the intricate details, Barry summarized things for her, “Got my powers back, did some travel, found out who the real villain behind all this is, that kind of stuff.”

“I see….and...um…” Iris gestured her eyes over to Wally, having not known him in this timeline she couldn’t help but ask: “Who-”

“Oh hey Aunt Iris” the kid introduced himself before either of the two adults could speak, “It’s me, Wally! Ya know, your nephew!”

“...from the future, or the other timeline, I know…”

As Iris’ voice trailed off, Barry took note of the look in her eyes and across her face. Getting beside her and kneeling to her level, Barry embraced her in a hug as he said to her sweetly:

“I promise after all this is over, we’re going back home together. Promise.”

“Oh, Barry…” he said, smiling at feeling his embrace again, “Don’t worry about me right now, worry about saving the world.”

“I can do both, you know.”

After a moment of silence between the two, their hug was parted. Wally the entire time remained quiet for once, not sure what to say - though he did sneak a bite of the pasta on the table while the two weren’t paying attention. Regardless, Iris still had one important question to ask Barry before she did send him back off on the quest of his:

“So, what’s the current objective on your hero mission?”

“I’m looking for Sonic, actually” Barry answered, “Have you seen where’s at recently?”

“Oh, you just missed him. Tails and some others came by, mentioning something about a G.U.N. battleship exploding off of the coast!” Iris explained, “Then they all took off.”

“Woah...a battleship exploded?” Wally perked up at that detail, looking at Barry, “That must be…”

“Then we should probably find Sonic fast, kid….I promise I, we’ll, be back soon Iris!”

Though Iris reached out a hand, she wasn’t quick enough to stop either of the two from darting off at their super fast speed, turning yet again into red and yellow blurs of wind. Even though he did give her a lightning fast goodbye kiss, she still didn’t have anything much else to do besides sit at that table with the pasta in front of her.

Such was the life of a superhero’s wife.

  
  


_ ABOVE SOLEANNA ISLAND…. _

Many hundreds of feet up in the air, the group that consisted of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Espio remained on the tornado - flying across the blue canvas of the sky and the moisture filled white clouds as they relied entirely on the Tornado’s radar system in the hopes of reaching their destination soon. Sonic, Knuckles and Espio managed to keep their balance even as they stood on the top wings of the plane at such a cold, high altitude while Tails’ focus was entirely on piloting while also constantly checking the radar. 

“How long until we know where Eggman is?” Sonic asked, more than ready to jump into action against his oldest nemesis;

“It depends, Sonic!” Tails replied, “We’re right over the forest area, getting pretty close to the old castle, if my hunch is correct we should start seeing - wait, I’m picking up some movement signatures in front of us!”

Sonic, Knuckles and Espio immediately fixated their eyes - even though they had to deal with the wind blowing ever in their faces - to the direction Tails had ‘pointed’ them to, and sure enough they could see a series of figures flying ahead of them off in the distance. Even from a distance they could tell that these shapes were that of a squad of flying robots - Eggman’s robots. 

In the center of the group was a robot similar in appearance to Metal Sonic, though painted scarlet red and styled after Knuckles instead - complete with the coloration of the metallic feet he had for ‘shoes’. Though his torso was also made out of a small sized jet engine, it did not sport a ‘hole’ in the front though instead was fully flat with a white crescent painted across it. His head even had several metallic ‘dreadlocks’ drooping down, though unlike his counterpart he sported white stripes on the very ends. His ‘hands’, if one could call them that, were rounded red shapes with single yellow lights upon the upper sides - for fingers he merely sported two sharp, glistening silver claws on either ‘hand’. Designed for digging as well as combat, it was in the clutches of those claws that Elise found herself in; her body resting on the red ‘hands’ themselves, while the knife-esque claws precariously rested close enough to her person that they had a firm grasp yet did not pierce her body. Nevertheless, she was very visibly unnerved by their proximity to her body.

Metal Knuckles was silent as he flew towards his destination with the duchess in his arms, the only sounds coming from the back of the engine he had for a torso. However he was not alone - surrounding him and the duchess was a squadron of at least twenty different robots - at least ten white Egg Gunners, five red Egg Stingers, three blue Egg Lancers and two yellow Egg Busters. As Metal Knuckles, the highest ranking machine amongst this troop, was unable to utilize his weapons with the princess in his arms, these automatons were in his charge to compensate.

Ultimately, this compensation would come rather quickly - Metal Knuckles was after all able to detect the Tornado via his own radar systems, and without uttering a single word or even motion gave a digital command to his subordinates to assault the plane accordingly while he increased his aerial speed in order to evade the scene. Following his orders the robots wasted little time in launching their attacks at the plane, launching their weapons even as they approached it fast as they could.

The Stingers, Busters and Gunners released hails of missiles with the latter adding in streams of rapid bullets while the Lancers supported this maelstrom with their energy laser shots - all of it directed at but a singular target.

It was a very intelligent, experienced target however.

“Hang on tight, guys!” Tails exclaimed, pressing a button in his cockpit that within a short span of time shifted the plane’s wings from their double deck shape into that of an ‘x’ ,with the back of a hull shifting into an upward slant in an exposure of a larger engine underneath.The three standing atop of it being temporarily grabbed by mechanical arms during this process of course, placed back onto its body afterwards - Sonic holding onto a handle behind the pilot seat, while Knuckles and Espio steadied themselves between either wing.

They had mere seconds to do that though, for the ‘plane’ was now more of a jet, and sped itself upwards mere moments before any of the missiles could have made impact with the vehicle. As they made impact with each other and exploded in mid-air, Tails not only maneuvered around more rounds of weaponry but also returned fire; exposing the green ‘lights’ along the wings as turrets that fired rapid fire energy projectiles of their own - allowing the Tornado to make short work of many Egg Gunners as well as the Lancers once it turned it’s way around and sped downward back at them before they even processed what was happening.

The plane at jet fast speed was also easily capable of outmaneuvering the Stinger & Buster’s own fast moving missiles, and it was just as it narrowly passed by some of those machines that Sonic, Knuckles and Espio decided to tactically launch themselves off the back end of the plane towards these flying foes.

Espio wasted no time in initiating the first strike - launching a swarm of rapid moving shurikens out, aiming specifically for the Egg Busters who fired the strongest and fastest moving missiles. Striking them in their small heads as well as their arm mounted cannons & torso with some of his projectiles going clean through them he was easily able to remove them from the skies - using his tongue to save himself from a fall by latching onto and pulling himself onto one of the few remaining Egg Gunners. Disrupting it’s vision with his hands he was able to get it to destroy two of its own comrades before it was destroyed by the Tornado's own weapons as it circled back towards the dogfight. Espio had of course skilfully leaped off the robot and back onto the plane when it came around.

“Time to show you my stone hard fists!” Knuckles called as he jumped into the air, and glided through the sky towards one of the Egg Gunners, the moment he was close he rammed right into it and clean through it his strength giving him the edge as he broke through the first Gunner smirking as he then flew out of the way of one that shot right at him as one circled around to try and attack him but he smirked as he moved jumping off the remains of one of the Egg Gunners - using them to move skillfully through the air akin to that of a dive; keeping his fists primed out in front of him and horizontally spun his entire body rapidly, turning himself into a flaming drilling projectile.

And of course, colliding with him proved rather fatal for all of the robots he made contact with - one after one they were reduced to nothing but falling pieces of burning metal in but single strikes. 

“Hunks of junk!” he called out as he plowed through the last robot that was in his way, Tails and his plane skillfully flying under his feet so that he could glide safely back onto it.

Sonic meanwhile, was unintentionally using this moment to test out the aftermath of that ‘lightning’ bolt that struck him last night, with a smirk he curled into his ball form and rushed as fast he could at a line of Egg Gunners flanked by Egg Stingers.

“You know, this squad isn’t precisely original, but oh well nothin’ wrong with the classics!” he remarked in his cocky tone as he rushed clean through them - shattering them to pieces as if he were a blue, razor sharp breeze of the wind. When the Egg Stingers approached him from behind during a moment of slow speed though - firing their missiles at him as their only method of attack, Sonic retaliated - smirking as he skilfully landed his feet on the bodies of the missiles and used them to jump further into the air. Once he was high enough above the pair of machines he began swirling both of his arms, generating from the two of them fast moving, incredibly powerful vortexes of wind like that of miniature tornadoes - aiming them directly at the two robots. 

Though they fired another round of missiles, they were naturally sucked into these swirling vortexes within seconds - their own missiles ultimately destroying them, with the wind crunching their pieces together as an extra measure.

After ceasing these vortexes, Sonic took the time to look at both of his hands in amazement for just a few moments, whistling as he said:

“Wow! That sure was an upgrade to my Sonic Wind! Guess that lightning bolt gave me a bit of a power boost!” one would have thought he’d be falling rapidly towards the ground, though luckily for him one last Egg Gunner was rushing up at him from beneath, firing a stream of bullets at him in vain only for Sonic to turn into a ball - dodging the bullets in the air before slicing clean through the robot, emerging from its bottom just in time to land on the tornado that flew by to pick him up.

With the last of Metal Knuckles’ escorts falling, all that was left for the group was catching back up to the ‘man’ himself. However, that distraction had offered enough time for the robot echidna to have long since arrived at his destination with the duchess; though Tails already had a good idea of where his landing was.

“Alright! Come on guys we’re almost there!” Tails called out from the cockpit of the Tornado as he had been keeping an eye on the fight and to insure that shoulder the other’s need air support that he was right there and ready to lend a hand. “Kingdom Valley is just a head! It's a smooth trip right towards the-huh?” Tails was interrupted by the scanner on the Tornado going off making him frown. 

“Something wrong Tails?” Sonic questioned his friend, who didn’t have to answer as a voice over his radio began speaking to them before the fox could:

“THIS AREA IS UNDER A STRICT NO FLY ZONE!” the man on the other end said, “LAND IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE SHOT OUT OF THE SKY!”

Knuckles, Espio and Sonic looked behind the plane to see where these voices were coming from - sure enough a squadron of three G.U.N. military jets were trailing the tornado, with two attack helicopters flying a few feet above as support. By the sound of that voice, they weren’t in the mood for compromise, though that didn’t stop Tails from trying - he was unaware of what had actually happened on that downed carrier after all:

“We’re just trying to save the duchess of Soleann-”

“YOU MUST LAND IMMEDIATELY!” the man didn’t even let him finish. The young fox boy was very much between a rock and a hard place, not sure what to do. He could obey G.U.N and land immediately, or he could continue on towards the ruins of the old castle and get closer to his destination - though that would be risking violence from the military forces. A military force that not too long ago had been willing to arrest Sonic in mistaking him for Shadow, and even put a 1 million dollar price on Tails’ own head; that’s not even getting into how willing one of their commanders was to try killing Shadow in the midst of alien invasion prior to ‘coming around’. All in all, his hands shook nervously as he clutched the control sticks of his plane, contemplating his options as quickly he could.

Sonic, Knuckles and Espio themselves were looking at these aircrafts with apprehensive looks - all of them bracing for whatever it was they would do. Feeling as though time was being wasted, the man from one of the aircrafts yet again yelled over the radio:

“REPEAT, THIS IS A NO FLY ZONE, YOU MUST LAND OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON. LAND IMMEDIATELY!”

“Wait! Wait! We don't mean any harm!” Tails tried to reason with the man, “You should know this by now! We helped save the world multiple times! The Death Eggs, Chaos, The Ark, The Black Arm-”

“FIRE!”

“Hang on!” Tails called out, as he tried to do his best to avoid getting shot by the hail of bullets and missiles, as well as avoid taking damage - none of the four wanting to pick a fight with the so-called ‘good’ military force. And for the most part he was doing a pretty good job, or at the very least he was avoiding taking serious damage. However, he wasn’t skilled enough to completely avoid taking damage as soon his good luck ran out - the unwillingness to fire back and the fact the jets were just as manuervable as the tornado resulted in the wings and hull taking in significant damage from the streams of bullets as well as missiles - the three riders almost being knocked clean off the plane had they not grabbed hold of the top wing’s edges when one of the bottom ones were shot clean off by a missile: “We’re hit! The Tornado can’t take much more of this!” 

“Tails can you try and land the Tornado somewhere safe?!” 

“We can't! We're barely holding on as is! Any more and we’re gonna be making a crash landing!” 

“Man, sometimes I really hate these guys!” Sonic remarked as he held on ever firmly to the plane, “All they do is get in the way!”

Alas, there wasn’t anything the group could do - when another missile made impact with the second bottom wing of the plane, all remaining control was lost as the aircraft began rapidly descending towards the ground. The G.U.N. aircrafts stopped firing as they witnessed the plane and it’s screaming passengers fall towards the sea of green grass and trees of the forest underneath, choosing to fly off into the distance rather than continue any pursuit. Still, that didn’t stop at all the fact the group was in a screaming freefall towards the ground.

Ultimately unable to keep steady with such a rapid fall, it wasn’t longer before Knuckles, Espio and Sonic found themselves spiraling into the sky - much to their and Tails’ shock and arm:

“Sonic!” Tails cried out, immediately abandoning the tornado’s cockpit to leap into the air - spinning his two tails frantically to swiftly catch Sonic, grabbing firmly onto one of Sonic’s hands and steadying both himself and his friend in the air with all his might, allowing for the two a slower yet safer descent towards the ground - something for which Sonic was most relieved:

“Thanks, buddy!” Sonic gave a smile and thumbs up, “But what about Knuckles and Espio?”

“Don’t worry!” Knuckles’ voice directed the two’s attention, the two of them seeing him gliding safely in the air, with Espio hanging off of his fists - Knuckles still having more than enough strength to to hold him up, “We’re alright too!”

“But” Espio commented, setting his eyes on where the tornado was crashing towards, “The plane...not so much.”

The four of them looked solemn as they watched the plane crash on the ground - finding itself tearing a tree in half before finally being stopped by the grass dirt on the other side of it - of course it lost the rest of its wings in the process. A tower of smoke ascending from it’s damaged hull as it now sat in the forest approaching the old castle - a sea of trees, grass and flowers on either side of it with mountains in the back. Though the canopy was far more spread out than the denser parts of the country; allowing for the four to make their soft landing right beside the downed plane.

Tails of course couldn’t help but touch it’s metal body with a sad look to his face, one of his greatest works shot out of the sky by the only force even more unhelpful than the soleanna cops.

“Sorry about the tornado, buddy” Sonic said, patting Tails on the shoulder, “But at least we all made it out in one piece!”

“Yeah” Tails said as he turned back to Sonic with a reassured look, “Though we’re now gonna have to get to the castle on foot.”

“Heh, no problem for me!” Sonic remarked, giving Tails a wink, “Just try your best to keep up!”

Though Knuckles scoffed at Sonic’s cockiness again, he and Espio along with Tails still followed after him as they proceeded to speed off down an old path of soft exposed dirt which marked the way both out of the forest and towards the old castle. With Sonic leading the charge it only took them but a few seconds to reach the very edge of the forest - the amount of trees tapering down as ahead of them was only large plains of green grass on either side with the aged stone structures, towers and spires of the former castle ahead; with some puddles from recent rainfall still fresh on the ground as well. However, the group was stopped just before they could set a single feet on the long stone bridge that actually entered the palace grounds - itself hanging precariously over a steep drop into a deep lake which the castle had been built across. Stopping them, to be expected, was a massive horde of Egg Gunners, Egg Lancers, Egg Stingers and Egg Busters - the lot of them all making landfall and stopping the group in their tracks as the machines numbering in the early twenties primed their weapons.

Before any of their weapons could even finishing cocking however, the four heroes were left not bracing for battle but instead surprised as the robots were all grabbed by a most familiar bright green aura, with Silver dropping from a tree branch above - Blaze at his side while he held all of the robots in his telekinetic grasp before all at once he threw them violently not only to the ground but also into each other: causing the whole lot of them to explode and crumble to pieces in the most anti-climactic of fashions.

The two of them turning to the flabbergasted group, Silver was the first one to speak - saying casually to Sonic:

“You like you’re in a hurry!”

Understandably Knuckles, Tails and Espio were not letting their guard down upon seeing the two of them again - and even Sonic had caution in his voice when he inquired:

“So, what’s goin’ on?”

“Circumstances have changed…” Silver hesitantly explained, “We  _ need _ to rescue the duchess!”

“Sonic…” Tails said, his voice trailing off in concern. Knuckles and Espio though, specifically Knuckles, was more than willing to elaborate for him:

“You guys tried to attack us earlier! Tried to kill Sonic twice already! What makes you think we’d be so quick to trust you?”

Espio, backing Knuckles’ argument up, silently nodded.

Blaze, sighing and shaking her head, was the one who replied:

“I apologize for our past encounters; me and Silver come from the future. We were told that Sonic was the cause of the future’s ruined state, but thanks to Shadow we know that’s not actually the case. We’re here to stop the _ actual _ cause of the disaster. I’m not saying you have to trust us, but at least let us help you.”

After Blaze’s words, all eyes turned to Sonic as a moment of silence took over the group. Though he could tell Tails, Knuckles and Espio were hesitant about this situation - one look into the eyes of both Silver and Blaze was enough for Sonic to decide his answer. After these few moments passed he gave the two of them a smile and thumbs up, even patting Silver on the shoulder as he proceeded to head on out towards the castle. 

Silver and Blaze both nodded before proceeding to follow him, with the other three right behind them as well - the lot of them headed down the bridge towards the castle, figuring correctly that was where the duchess was being held captive.

  
  


More correctly however, Elise was not being held within the decrepit stone halls of the castle itself but rather in the metallic ones of the Egg Carrier that was currently docked in an underwater hangar of the laboratory complex beneath the old castle. Even more specifically she was seated on a chair in the middle of it’s command center - the room was mostly painted in varying shades of black and gray, with red accents. Some distance before her was the obligatory boards of various flashing monitors, buttons and levers that themselves were directly beneath the large window which overlooked the large, dark hangar the aircraft was parked in. On either side of the door behind her were both Metal Knuckles and a repaired Metal Sonic, standing idly by to ensure she does not get away again as Eggman himself casually paced around her; saying to her in the smuggest of tones:

“You’ve wasted _ so  _ much of my time.”

Continuing with his condescending, almost scolding tone as she sat there silently he went on to say:

“If you had cooperated with me earlier, I wouldn’t have had to do this!”

Though she wanted to be far more aggressive, Elise managed to restrain herself and it was with that restraint that she managed to pull out of her mouth:

“What are you trying to do, Dr, Eggman? Why do you wish to revive the Flames of Disaster?”

After a brief pause, and while maintaining his smug look, Eggman paced around some more as he casually asked:

“Did your parents ever disclose to you anything about Solaris?”; as she remained silent he decided to instead continue on, “There are many similar myths to Solaris across many ancient civilizations; the myth of a being forged from the combination of two, if not three other deities, said to be the great union of Old and New; the God of All Gods. Proclaiming to rule over all of time and even of all realities - all timelines, all universes,  _ everything.  _ Igniting a war of Gods that left his opponents destroyed and himself in two - the darkness and the flames. The brains, and the brawn. Nowhere is this myth as prevalent however, as in Soleanna; doing my research into the subject I began uncover the truth buried beneath all the superstitious nonsense, and not only did I learn how the flames lie dormant within you - but I also began learning the extents that Solaris’ power could extend to. With that power, I would be able to dominate  _ everything _ in this world! All the way from the past, to the distant future!”

“You…” Elise replied, slowly processing what it was he had just said, “Wish to rule over time?”

“Yes, truly” Eggman answered, “And the secret…” it was then that something interrupted the conversation - the sound of an alarm coming from one of the monitors. Immediately walking over to see what it was about, Eggman’s face curled into something of an angry glare as he saw security footage of Sonic and his group entering the grounds of the old castle. Growling, Eggman turned to Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles, “Boys, it looks like we’re having a  _ rat  _ infestation again! See to it that those pests get  _ exterminated _ !”

Responding with their metallic noises, the two robots nodded firmly before immediately stepping out of the room, the door automatically closing and shutting for them. As they left and Eggman began pressing buttons to summon the hordes of his other machines, Elise was silently hoping that this ‘infestation’ would reach her soon.

  
  


_ KINGDOM VALLEY _

In the charge towards the ruins that was the massive old castle complex, it was Sonic and Blaze who led the charge - being surprisingly close in speed to one another, though Sonic was noticeably faster of course. The initial stone bridge they were initially standing along proving to have a massive gap in it, the two instead elected to leap onto the iron railings on the side of it in order to grind across the chasm to a flat pillar on the other side. Tails took to the sky while carrying Espio - taking a higher path that was closer to the steep cliffside the complex was built along, Knuckles gliding to traverse a lower path closer to the waters of the lake, and Silver levitating to follow after Knuckles. 

Sonic & Blaze’s fast-paced grinding ended when they landed on that aforementioned pillar of stone - a wide, circular structure made entirely of stone, though either side of it’s top was covered with tall overgrown grass and flowers, with various leaves and vines covering the decayed stone columns and archways that once were a part of a complete structure. They didn’t have enough time to enjoy the scenery around them though, and instead rushed right across the stone bridge connecting this flat tower with another - one that had a troop of three robots freshly landing onto it; one Egg Stinger flanked by two Egg Gunners. 

They were no match for either Sonic or Blaze though, with Blaze turning herself into a drilling flame before the Stinger could even fire a single missile, barreling herself into it and turning it within seconds to a flaming mess with but one explosion. Sonic also easily dispatched the Gunners, sliding as one of them fired it’s bullet stream - tripping it onto the ground, before jumping off the edge of the platform to evade the other’s missile firing before he destroyed with a high speed drop kick to the head. He landed just in time to see Blaze destroy the last remaining machine with a fire blast from her left palm, melting it within seconds.

Smirking at having witnessed this, Sonic complimented:

“Glad you're on my side now!”

Though she did nod, Blaze responded with the utmost focus on the group’s objective:

“We need to keep going, time is of the essence here!”

Sonic didn’t need the reminder though, he with Blaze at his side sped along the stone bridge ahead of them - this one curving in a wide downward spiral, going around both previous towers they had been standing on prior and filled with enough steep gaps in the road that they elected to yet again grind along the metal railings rather than stick strictly to the stone floor of the bridge. Eventually the two of them reached a point where there was a significant gap in both the stone path and the railing they were grinding on, forcing the two of them to jump onto yet another flat and withered tower of stone. 

This one though seemed to be a bit of a small garden, sporting not only a full head of lush though unkempt grass but also a few rocks, flowers and even a decently sized tree just along the edge. There was also an aged wall of stone blocking off the remaining portion of a decrepit stone bridge on the other side, though Sonic easily broke through it with ease on account of how old and unstable it was. Just as Blaze took care of the Egg Lancer and a pair of Egg Gunners that were stationed on the grass by turning into a swirling tornado of fire upon her landing.

Though once the robots were destroyed as well as the stone wall, it didn’t take them long at all to notice there wasn’t enough of that bridge portion for them to reach the next traversable area - all that was ahead of them was a straight drop into the lake so far below them, with various spires and towers of greyed stone ahead of them that were far too distant for them to get to on their own. 

That, of course, was where Tails came in.

“Need a lift, guys?” he said as he with Espio latching onto his hands descended towards Blaze and Sonic, the two of them both making their landing beside them - giving Tails a few moments to take a rest. Sonic of course, nodded with a smirk;

“O’course, buddy!” though then his attention returned to the valley landscape ahead of and around them, “Though where’s Knux and Silver?”

“Looks like they’re clearing things out for us” Blaze stated, pointing out ahead, directing attention to both the sight and sounds that were unmistakably those of robots meeting their untimely demise.

Indeed, Knuckles and Silver had managed to progress ahead of the group - Knuckles having swam in the water while Silver casually levitated above it. While Silver had landed on another flattened tower above and propelled himself right onto a pathway forged from the cliffside, a flattened natural ‘balcony’ of sorts, while Knuckles had exited the waters and climbed himself onto the same ledge. Noticing that robots were both in front and above them - Silver opted to rush forward and grab hold of one of Eggman’s large ‘wasp’ themed robots, one that many smaller machines released lasers in a circle around itself. It stood very little chance as the white hedgehog grabbed it with his powers and chucked it right at another flimsy stone wall, shattering both it and the machine to pieces before Silver then launched himself to higher cliff ledge above - where he got to with ease toss an Egg Buster’s faster heavy missiles right back at it.

Knuckles meanwhile had taken to the cliffside walls themselves - digging into them the moment the Egg Gunners around him launched a barrage of their missiles. That mass of rock and earth provided excellent cover for the impacts of said weapons, as Knuckles swiftly dug himself upwards until he got to where a large stone bridge was itself constructed into the canyonside. Using his fists he was able to cause damage to the structure’s end that with a rumbling roar it collapsed not only onto the Gunner beneath itself but also into waters below.

The ones who had been standing on the bridge took the air to preserve themselves, only for Knuckles to emerge violently from the cliff and with both his gliding and his fists used them as stepping stones to get to the cliffside tower that the fallen structure had been leading to. 

Before Knuckles could continue on though, he had to quickly dodge a moderate barrage of small, orange bombs raining down onto him - exploding upon impact with the ground. Looking up he could see latched to the wall a grouping of bots that were like a ball with four legs attached and a beetle-like horn that was used to throw the aforementioned bombs. With another batch of explosives soon coming his way, Knuckles knew just what to do; he quickly dug his way into the walls of the stone structure they were latched to and one by one punched the exact spots they were on from the other side - creating hole after hole as the robots were either destroyed immediately or when they hit the ground afterwards. 

Launching himself out of the top of this cliffside tower and looking out ahead at yet another stone bridge, he was met with the sight of ten Egg Gunners supporting one of the Egg Cannons - one of the larger robots, the type with the blue paint with powerful laser weapons as well as missiles from it’s central body that itself was supported by two large arms and legs that each had sharp drills on the ends. Though it did get to fire out it’s twin laser beams at Knuckles, albeit the echidna was more than capable of dodging it via digging back under the ground and only emerging after the beams dissipated, it’s attempt at firing alongside it’s brethren a barrage of missiles was not so successful.

Which is of course to say that once he landed right in front of Knuckles, Silver used his powers to grab the massive amount of missiles before immediately sending them right back at all of the robots standing in the pair’s way - destroying the entire squadron within a matter of seconds.

Impressed by such power and grateful for the save, Knuckles smiled and nodded as he said to the white hedgehog:

“You know, you’re not half bad when you’re not trying to kill us!”

Silver smiled earnestly as he replied:

“Heh, thanks!”

The two did not have much time to chat however, as the sound of more robots heading towards them from the air required their complete attention. Looking in this direction, they could see the swarm coming from over the absolutely gargantuan stone wall that separated this outer valley from where the actual core of the palace was situated. It was from the other side of that wall, and heading towards them, that the legion of machines was coming.

At least twenty Egg Gunners flying in formation between two Egg Cannons themselves also in their folded flying positions; the army as a whole supported by at least ten Egg Stingers, five Egg Busters, and a trio of Egg Lancers. Arriving from curved stone tunnels on the deepest bottoms of the wall were Eggman’s own copy of the G.U.N. beetles, those flying ‘disc’ robots with two wide propulsion backs beneath them - a horde of at least twenty flying from those tunnels so close to the waters below to meet up with the greater armada.

Noticing that Tails was by this point carrying Sonic and Blaze over this vast area via his flight, with Espio running along the sides of the canyon walls - the two of them knew they had to think up a strategy fast. Of them, Knuckles was the first to attack; launching himself in the air with fists readied at one of the Egg Cannons - though it fired a single round of laser beams at him, neither of the beams struck him and instead his tackling punch sent both of them collapsing into the waters below. While both could survive being in the water, the fact the machines severed parts floated up to the top revealed who won. Knuckles also used the water as a cover from the knock-off beetle robots and their rapid bullet streams - springing from the waters with uppercut punches to destroy them from below while he made his way towards the tunnel they were coming from, planning to meet the others on the other side of the towering wall.

With Tails, Sonic and Blaze needing support against the rest of the horde - that duty fell upon Silver and Espio. Without exchanging any words with one another the two got to work - with Silver launching himself into the air and using his powers to not only imitate flight but also repeatedly send the massive swarm of missiles back at the machines who fired them, with Espio using his shurikens to dispatch any stragglers whom survived while he traversed this precarious landscape on foot.

Looking down at all of this from above, Sonic couldn’t help but whistle - impressed by all he was seeing:

“Man, I almost wish I could be a part of all that!”

“Traversing this area on foot is too difficult,” Blaze replied.

“I’ll say, it’s very good you guys became friendly before all this or this’d be a lot harder! Though then again, danger can still be pretty fun!”

“Don’t worry, Sonic” Blaze commented cordially, “I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of danger waiting for us on the other side of this wall.”

“Heheh” Sonic chuckled gleefully, “I look forward to it!”

Reaching the other side of the gargantuan wall shortly, the group found themselves recouping on a low lying flattened platform - the top of a mostly submerged tower with the bulk of its body being underwater giving the illusion of it being ‘short’. Landing in the center of those stone tiles littered with unkempt grass - even flowers - across it, the group took a bit of time to evaluate their surroundings as Tails, Silver, Sonic, Blaze & Espio all landed while Knuckles emerged from the water. 

They were now in the back end of the castle itself - it’s massive, expansive complex of dark stones and near gothic architecture spiraling high into the sky above while it was caged in well by that aforementioned stone wall that even by human standards was of a truly monstrous size. With no robots currently in their immediate vicinity, the group had a few moments to soak in the atmosphere around them while also planning their next moves:

“This place is so big!” Tails remarked as he took in the sheer size of the actual estate itself, let alone the overwhelming size of the palace and all of its many towers, “How did only one family live here?”

“I know, right?” Sonic replied, “This place even puts the Forbidden City in Chun-Nan to shame!”

“I bet Eggman is docking his battleship somewhere in the laboratory complex underneath the palace itself” Blaze said to the rest of the group, gaining their attention as she said “Me and Silver can lead the way there!”

Silver nodded in agreement with her idea as he took a few steps ahead of the group, towards the stone bridge connecting their platform to but one section of the palace proper, saying to them all:

“I’ll go on ahead, the rest of you guys stay close behind me!”

With those words having been said, Silver raced on ahead of the group as they followed right behind him - the lot of them following the bridge until they were on another large piece of flooring, a large rectangular piece of palace ground with the shadows of the building above cast well over it - a single turn to the right leading them towards a wall that was made primarily of unremarkable stones though right at the bottom had a few metal bars giving way to the area beyond it. Standing in front of these bars and using his psychokinetic powers, Silver was easily able to bend all of the bars with nothing but for his mind until there was a gap big enough for all of them to get through one by one.

Once they were on the other side, the first thing they saw was a most ornate black iron fence that served to serve no other purpose beyond furthering the ‘royal’ aesthetic of the estate, though it certainly succeeded on that end. To their left was a dead end in the form of a stone wall being slowly overtaken by leaves and algae, while to their right was a stone stairway heading downward towards the water. With that being their only option it was natural for them to choose that direction of travel, though very quickly they saw that the stairs were quite packed to the grim with more of those small, brown, bomb throwing ‘beetle’ robots.

They were undeterred however, as getting on his knees and placing a palm to the ground Silver was able to generate a magnetic pulse that shocked all of the robots into a state of shock - forcing them to curl into balls as the sounds of them short circuiting were heard loud and clear. Proceeding to pick them up with his psychokinesis, Silver spotted with his eyes a pair of large wooden platforms suspended over the water amongst what was otherwise various pillar and balcony structures. Getting himself down to the small square of floor just before the water itself, he took his aim and fired all of the robots he had gathered into the bottom support beams of these platforms; the wood they were made of proved so weak that they crumbled within a matter of moments and fell to the water with mighty splashes. Not only that, but they also floated atop the water after their fall - just what Silver had been hoping for.

With these platforms downed the only thing the group had to do was traverse them. With Knuckles’ ability to swim he was able to to travel right under the platform while easily dealing with any underwater fish or shark robot that Eggman happened to be hiding, while the others used either their flight, jumping distance or levitation abilities to get onto the platforms - repeating it to get on the second one and from there onto the two slanted half-submerged bridge pieces that separated them from another stairway section. The only obstacles they really had were small squads of Egg Gunners, Egg Busters and Egg Stingers that attacked from large balcony structures to the side - though Silver was easily able to use his powers to toss the missiles they fired right back at them, sparing himself and the group any trouble during their trek.

Landing on the second stairway and promptly rushing up it’s stone steps, the group was met on top by more of the bomb throwing ‘beetles’ scurrying about on the farside of the stone floor they were looking at. However they barely had a chance to even use their weapons - the moment they flicked their bombs towards them en masse, they were destroyed when Silver threw them immediately back at them before they could even hit the ground, destroying the entire group of machines with little effort at all.

Faced with yet another dead end in front of them and another iron fence to their right, they turned to the left where there was a large brass door in the center of what was otherwise a wall of stone. Before anyone said a single word, Knuckles stepped up in front of the group while motioning his arms - specifically his fists, in circles to get them ready as he said:

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this one!”

Punching out with both of his fists as strong he could, Knuckles easily dislodged the old door from its hinges with but one loud booming sound, sending it down to the floor on the other side where the noises of it’s crash mixed in with those of various robots being crushed underneath it’s weight. From the looks of things, a squad of Egg Gunners had been unfortunate enough to be in it’s path.

Walking in to where the door led to, they found a three walled ‘room’, with the front of the chamber being completely open . Blocking their path they saw yet another Egg Cannon robot, one that primed it’s weapons within seconds - scattering the group with it’s laser beams while also firing its standard missile barrage. It didn’t have time to do much else though, as not only was it sent on one leg by a blast of Blaze’s fire, and then hunching over both when Knuckles punched it, but right afterwards Silver sent all of it’s missiles back at it’s own body - destroying it just as quickly as they encountered it.

With that ‘last’ threat falling to pieces, they were able to get a good look at what was ahead of them: immediately in front of their only open path, or at least within jumping distance, was a large tower that headed directly into the sky, a large stained glass window depicting an eagle within view. Below, just above the water, were more scattered ruins of bridges and pathways huddled around one stone bridge that extended out from the bottom door of the tower and went straight through a cave tunnel - scanning their eyes over to the top of the rock formations that formed the valley showed that on the other side was a skyline of pointed spires and more gothic towers, as well as what appeared to be the body of the main castle structure itself.

Crashing through the stained glass window, the group found themselves on the withered floor of a circular tower, the only thing keeping things from being pitch dark being the light emitting from more windows far above them - alongside the broken one they had come in from.

Though they had been expecting a simple bursting through the door towards the area beyond the tunnel, that wasn’t at all what they got.

Before they could even take a single step towards that door, from the ceiling dropped their guests - a squadron of at least seven yellow-black Egg Busters joined by three Egg Lancers as support. Priming all of their weapons once their metallic feet hit the floor, the squad was joined by their leaders - Metal Sonic & Metal Knuckles, who descended right in front of the door after the group of heroes was pushed well into the center of the room.

Sonic and Knuckles stood side by side, both of them taking on their battle stances and looking at the robots and their robotic duplicates that were before them and primed to attack them. 

“Good to see you again, Metal” Sonic remarked sarcastically, gritting his teeth as he had his fists clenched, “See you brought company this time.”

Metal Sonic didn’t respond, at least not in the verbal sense. His eyes gleamed as he glared at Sonic in anger, everything in his system was telling him to destroy the blue hedgehog and prove his superiority as the one true Sonic. However, his systems were also telling him something was ...different about Sonic, Metal didn’t know what it was yet and personally he didn’t care whatever tricks Sonic had up his sleeve he was going to take him down. Slowly raising his hand up, he pointed one of his metallic claws like fingers right at Sonic and Knuckles giving a silent order for one thing. 

To attack. 

Within an instant, the Egg Busters fired their brutal missiles while the Lancers their laser beams at the group - Sonic and Knuckles proved quick enough to evade the onslaught by jumping quickly, though it appears their metal duplicates had been hoping for that to happen as Metal Sonic leaped in the air to collide with Sonic while Metal Knuckles fired one of his clawed ‘hands’ at Knuckles from the ground, it connected to him like that of a grappling cable. 

Knuckles however did manage to use his gliding to evade this attack, and once in the right position he dove down like a drill towards his counterpart just as the cable pulled the hand back into place. Metal Knuckles was fast enough to jump out of the way though, at which point he tried to swipe at Knuckles who himself jumped out of the way as well - trying to attack the robot in the back of his head only to have his fist deflected by a green energy shield that protected the robotic echidna from immediate harm. 

Knuckles grunted as he was knocked away by the shield, his doppleganger using the moment of his distraction to lunge right for his chest with one of his arms - though Knuckles regained focus quick enough to leap right over his duplicate before impact.

While the two red ones fought, both Sonic and Metal Sonic were blurs of blue, one slightly darker than the other as they fought. They repeatedly slammed into each other as they rapidly moved around the move, and then they clashed once more. Metala threw punches rapidly akin to a machine-gun, but Sonic continued to evade them as afterimages tailed behind his movements before flipping backwards when Metal suddenly switched to a front kick. This turned out to be a plot as Metal dashed to where Sonic was about to land with a fist raised back, he thrusted his fist forward only for it to pass right through Sonic who faded away like a gust of wind. 

Metal stood there in shock, unable to believe what he had seen. That moment of shock was more than enough for a punch to the left side of his cheek to send him stumbling away, turning to see Sonic standing there smirking. If Metal could growl he would, arching his back he curled up into his spinball form Sonic mimicking him. The two of them revved up a spin dash several times building up power before shooting towards one another, they shot right towards one another getting closer and closer; only for right at the last second they both seemingly vanished from sight. 

There was a brief explosion in the air, as they were rapidly ricocheting off each other as they moved about the airea with air getting displaced from every collision. During one of their clashes, Metal took the chance to land a powerful front kick into Sonic’s torso and if he had lips he would be smirking as he lashed out with a strong right hook, chaos energy charged right into his fist as the blow rippled through his body before Metal called upon the power he copied from Shadow and used Chaos Control in rapid succession to deliver a barrage of punches and kicks in a hit-and-run like fashion from multiple directions after which he ended the combo by Chaos Controlling once more; this time appearing above Sonic and delivered an axe kick to knock him downwards to crash into the ground. 

At the same time, Knuckles was still clashing with his own metallic double - in fact he was clutching tightly the robot’s arms in order to hold him back when he saw Sonic’s blunt crash, turning around as he exclaimed:

“Sonic!”

This distraction though proved to be an undoing for him, as Metal Knuckles used it as a chance to charge up a bit of an attack - he discharged his green energy shield as a laser beam that send Knuckles flying into the tower’s walls, just enough force to leave a small impact crater before the echidna fell to the floor just as the blue hedgehog had before him.

Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles didn’t waste any time in preparing to finish off their downed rivals, with Metal Knuckles using his grappling cable claws to quickly speed over to the echidna, kicking him right in the face as he was trying to get up. From then he went on to place a foot on Knuckles’ chest, keeping him down as the robot prepared another one of his claws - the echidna glaring angrily back at his robotic duplicate while gritting his teeth ever furiously.

Metal Sonic had a similar attitude of little to no mercy, kicking appearing behind Sonic and using both hands cupped in a fast to punch him right back to the ground before grabbing him by the neck from behind - lifting him into the while codly clenching his claws around Sonic’s throat, staring at his adversary just as brutally the entire time while hearing and quite possibly enjoying the sounds of him struggling.

Much like his comrade, he was ready to deliver a finishing blow.

At least, until a sound distracted the two of them.

Within an instant a light green shockwave emitted across the entire circular room, causing the two robotic doppelgangers to become frozen in place as their systems began short circuiting and malfunctioning for what to them was practically no reason at all. Looking to the center of the room though, the four could see that it was Silver. When the Busters and Lancers had attacked he had generated a bubble shield around himself as protection; his discharge of its psychic energy proved more than capable of destroying all of the mook machines in a mere instant and also stunning the Metals.

With the two of them in this situation, Knuckles and Sonic found it more than easy to turn the tables on their metallic rivals; Sonic swept his feet to knock Metal Sonic to the ground while Knuckles grabbed Metal Knuckles’ foot while saying with a grin:

“Now it’s my turn, you cheap copy!”, before he then threw the robot to the ground with a powerful slam, jumped up into the air and did a diving punch right to the robot’s chest before punching up square in the jaw to send him spiraling into Metal Sonic, Sonic getting out of the way before both machines collided both with each other and then with the wall behind them.

With their robotic duplicates yet again out for the count, Sonic and Knuckles turned to the rest of the group, with Sonic giving Silver a relieved thumbs up as he said:

“Thanks for the save back there, Silver!”

“Don’t mention it” the white hedgehog replied, “No we should-”

Suddenly they were all caught off guard by the sound of rumbling earth from a distance outside of the tower, followed by the equally distant sound of alarms, splashing water and what sounded very close to rocket engines blasting off. With only a few guesses as to what that sound could be, the group immediately set out - Knuckles wasting no time in punching down the door blocking their path before they rushed down the stone bridge exiting the tower.

Passing right through the tunnel of earth and rock that the bridge was built within the center of, the group found themselves standing in the center of yet another low lying flat platform atop an aged tower, though this time the landscape around them was the very edge of the valley - the colossal cliff formations parted to make way for the bay that itself made way for the distant sea, while overlooking it all was the impressively large main body of the gothic palace itself, decorated with dark shingles and joined by various pointed spires and ornate towers jutting out from the waters below. Ruins of bridges and even stairs that once connected all of these structures could also be spotted, half-sunken in said waters. With the sky now having turned a firm grey color, the entire area had an almost depressing look to it, as if nature itself was dispirited by what was transpiring. Or perhaps it was merely coincidence. Whatever the case, what drew the team of heroes’ attention was the appearance of the Egg Carrier emerging from the waters of the bay ahead of the castle, the aerial battleship speeding into the sky to get away from the scene.

“No!” Sonic exclaimed, clenching his fists in frustration, “We’re too late! He’s getting away!”

“It’s not just that Sonic, look!” Tails with a frightened voice said, pointing into the air as the sound of the Egg Carrier takeoff was joined by speeding jets also heading towards it, firing their missiles at the aircraft with practically no hesitation - operating with hit-and-run tactics to evade the Carrier’s own missile and laser retaliation. Even as the ship managed down several jets though, more arrived from the distance; a seemingly infinite supply. It was when the fleet of ships blockading the edge of the bay began to fire their absolutely devastating missiles that not only did the group have to cover their ears the first time, but they also began to realize what soon was about to happen, Tails even saying as he saw flaming chunks of metal begin falling from the edge of the Egg Carrier “Sonic, remember what we found out in the future?! This must be how the Egg Carrier crashes! Eggman’s trying to charge right through a no-fly zone! We have to do something!”

“Those idiots!” Knuckles growled at this sight, referring to G.U.N. as he snarled, “They’re literally just gonna destroy the Egg Carrier without saving the duchess at all! What kind of ‘world protectors’ do they honestly think they are?!”

“They must know she’s likely on board the ship too” Espio added, “This is beyond irresponsible!”

Witnessing another blast from the G.U.N. ships leave another gaping, flaming hole in the side of an Egg Carrier with another ear piercing firing - let alone the smaller damage the swarm of jets were doing, Sonic couldn’t help but glare angrily at what he was seeing. With the amount of chunks falling off of it he knew it wouldn’t be long before he witnessed that fateful moment he’d been dreading since he came back from the future, but there was but one problem:

“How are we supposed to get on that ship from here, Tails? There’s not enough time to go back for the plane, let alone repair it in time!”

Tails wanted to answer, but for once he was absolutely stumped. The pressure of their unspecific time limit didn’t help either, and the fox would’ve certainly choked up had it not been for Silver stepping up and speaking:

“It’s a longshot…” he said, “But perhaps if I use my psychokinesis, and you combine it with your speed, I can throw you just enough to reach the ship so that you can board it and save the duchess before it crashes!”

“It’s worth a shot....” Sonic replied, nodding as he heard Silver’s plan, “Alright, let’s do it!”

“Before you do, take this with you!” Blaze said as she tossed a certain blue chaos emerald at Sonic, the hedgehog catching it in his hands, looking at it - and practically smirking a bit when he looked at it - though Espio admittedly was more mixed at this remembering how it was taken from him in the first place. Nevertheless, Sonic looked at Blaze as she said; “I imagine it will be able to help you.”

“Oh yeah, it definitely will, thanks!”

“Alright guys” Knuckles interjected, bringing everyone to attention, “Remember, we’re running on  _ a lot  _ of borrowed time right now!”

“Right!” Sonic nodded, turning to Silver - the white hedgehog returning the nod. Without saying anything more, Sonic turned his back to Silver, his force towards the embattled Egg Carrier as he began revving up his feet as as he good - within seconds his feet becoming a rapid moving blur of red, white and blue flashes as Silver from behind used his powers to yet again grab Sonic into his psychokinetic aura. Though Sonic winced a bit at feeling that again, Silver was this time making sure to allow Sonic to retain his movement while in the hold of it - before aiming and launching Sonic right in the direction of the Egg Carrier as it just started disappearing over the horizon of the canyonside.

Turning into his ball state while effectively jumping off the momentum of Silver’s throw as well as his own, Sonic headed towards the Egg Carrier like that of a super speed missile - blue chaos emerald in hand.

Watching from the platform as the scene continued to unfold, the remaining group could only look up at the Egg Carrier and hope for the best:

“He better make it” Knuckles commented, “We’re counting on him….”

“Don’t worry Knuckles” Tails assured him, “Sonic always finds a way in the end.”

Tails then turned his attention to Blaze and Silver, as did Knuckles and Espio, with the former questioning them:

“So, you two are from the future?”

“Yes” Blaze nodded, “We’re still sorry about earlier, by the way.”

“After that save you guys pulled back there, consider it alright.”

“Heh…”

“So” Knuckles then brought up, “Do you guys plan on staying in this time period, or going back?”

In response to that question, Silver and Blaze both looked at each other - seemingly answering it amongst each other silently in their heads before Blaze looked back to the echidna with an actual verbal response:

“I think we should go back to our time now. We know how to defeat Iblis.”

Looking to Blaze, Silver responded with a smiling nod before returning to Knuckles - pulling out and tossing to him the turquoise chaos emerald, with Silver holding in his hand the white one. Remembering how they had returned from the present, Knuckles knew just what Silver need him to do and complied with it- the two of them walking in close and holding up their hands as they uttered in unison:

“Chaos control!”

And like that, yet another swirling time portal opened up before their eyes. Before Silver and Blaze jumped in however, Knuckles had one more thing to say to the two of them:

“Wait up, take this” and he handed Silver back the turquoise emerald, the hedgehog and cat looking at him curiously as he explained “If you’re going up against that giant monster, you’re probably gonna need both of these.”

Smiling and nodding, Silver gave one last word to his allies:

“Thanks, and good luck to all of you!” before he, with Blaze following, proceeded jump into the portal and with a flash of light vanish with it - returning to their time period just as the remaining trio looked suddenly looked to the direction of the Egg Carrier, a loud rumbling, booming sound combined with the entire canyon being illuminated in fire and flashes of light frightening all three of them.

  
  


Propelled into the air at a greater velocity than ever before, Sonic was heading right into what was perhaps one of the most dangerous situations he’d ever been in before.

As he neared the Egg Carrier like a homing missile, it was not lost on him that he was also heading directly into a swarm of fighter jets supported by powerful anti-air cannon blasts from massive ships from far down below - all of these things ruthlessly firing away at the Egg Carrier’s large hull, with the jets and their missiles pecking away at it like small insect stings while the ships were more like massive birds of prey or sharks taking massive chunks out of it’s target. Though it certainly fought back with it’s weapon systems, as mentioned before for every jet it managed t o shoot down there were essentially ten more arriving on the scene ready to take its place. The deck of the carrier was carpet bombed multiple tombs by passing triangular squadrons of G.U.N.’s aircrafts, turning it into a flaming hellscape - and the ‘nose’ of the ship had it’s devastating front laser disabled by several direct strikes from the ships maintaining the blockade the moment it began opening, disabling the Carrier’s most powerful weapon.

This was the scene Sonic was hurtling towards, a scene of absolute chaos as the Egg Carrier made it’s desperate attempt of a getaway. 

Miraculously managing to not get interrupted by any of the passing jets on his way, Sonic managed to just grab hold of the very back tap of the Egg Carrier’s upper wings. Having to now fight against the rushing winds as the ship sped along as fast it could, Sonic had to hurl himself with all his momentum so that his feet could land on the metal ahead of him and thus allow him to make a dash towards the ship’s command tower. Looking up and seeing another squadron of fighter jets arriving in triangle formation to perform another carpet bombing with their missiles Sonic knew he had to use all the speed he could muster. 

Speeding along the metal of the ship just ahead of the missiles, explosions going off both behind and all around him, it was just as that chunk of the ship was exploded clean off in a violent roar of flame that Sonic leaped right towards the base of the ship’s command tower - closing his eyes as he neared it, unaware at first that instincts forced his entire body to act by vibrating so rapidly that he actually managed to essentially phase through the metal walls of the tower - emerging on the other side with his feet clanging against the reflective grey floor just as the ship continued rumbling and howling as the G.U.N. forces continue their assault across the outside of the ship. Their onslaught even sent Sonic back onto the metal floor for a few moments as he had been trying to stand up, and that’s not even mentioning the blaring sound of the ship’s alarms as the entire ship was illuminated in their flashing red lights. 

As much as he wanted to question that new ability of his, he could tell all too well that he had no time to do such a thing. As such he yet again deployed all the speed he could to traverse the Egg Carrier in the hopes of finding Eggman and Elise before it was too late.

Luckily for him, he was indeed just in time.

In the lower levels of the ship, specifically a rounded hangar room that was just one wall away from the anarchy erupting outside, Eggman was trying to make his getaway - walking with Elise along a catwalk that extended through the length of the hangar. With two Egg Gunners behind Elise to ensure she follows, of course. Across the side were numerous suspended aircrafts, various forms of his egg-mobiles that Eggman has used throughout his long career - though the one that Eggman was focused on getting to was the modern one he’d been using this whole adventure so far. With each rumbling of the ship both the doctor and his captive risked falling off that walkway due to loss of balance.

“Gragh!” Eggman growled in frustration as he stepped into the driver’s seat of his aircraft, “Blasted fools, destroying my beautiful Egg Carrier! I’ll show them! I should’ve known that emerald was a fake the moment that speedy rodent gave it to me! If it had been a real one, the shields would be operational right now!”

He then gestured for the pair of robots to escort Elise onto the Egg-mobile again,an arrogant smile on his face:

“You should surely know the drill by now, your highness~”

Elise of course, hesitated, scowling at Eggman with a look both of great annoyance and also just simply being tired of the man by this point. Still, she had the machine gun arm of a robot pointing her in the back while inside an aircraft literally collapsing around her so there weren't precisely that many options available for her besides compliance. Or at least, there didn’t seem to be.

With a flash of blue wind, both of the Egg Gunners suddenly flew to the other end of the hangar and fell to pieces as if they were nothing, catching both Elise and Eggman off guard until Sonic inevitably stopped himself right at Elise’s side, holding an arm out as if to protect her as he said to Eggman:

“Playtime’s over!”

“Sonic!” Elise exclaimed, more relieved than she’s ever been before. Eggman meanwhile, frowned coldly in a moment of silent rage. Or at least, silent until Sonic resumed talking:

“Too bad for your ship, Eggman! Would’ve loved to explore it more, but guess there’s no chance for that now!”

Eggman with a growl actually stomped his foot repeatedly on the cockpit of his egg-mobile as if having a tantrum, making sure to shout furiously at his greatest nemesis:

“I’m not finished  _ yet _ !”

Just as Eggman sat down in his aircraft and prepared to launch it from it’s holding, and while Sonic glared while himself preparing for battle, it was ultimately G.U.N. that intentionally or not cut their duel short. A single blast from one of the ship cannons from far below managed to strike the exterior of the hangar room directly; causing not only a violent explosion that shook the entire ship and made everyone in the room gasp and duck to shield themselves from incoming metal debris, but also left a gaping hole in the ship that within mere seconds began ripping itself apart until the entire hangar room was left exposed - the winds from the outside world blowing and howling like that of a ferocious wind storm as the ship continued on it’s desperate journey. That wasn’t all either, for the remnants of the hangar’s walls actually scraped and scratched, even exploded, against its own ceiling as well as the rest of the ship’s external body - causing more than enough damage to not only leave even more streams of burning fires across the Carrier but also knock all of Eggman’s other vehicles - including the ‘classic’ ball-and-chain variant from years ago, loose from their suspension cables to leave them at the mercy of both gravity and the wind. Within mentions Eggman’s current egg-mobile was struck hard by his past vehicles, the checkered ball extending from his oldest one slamming right into the left engine of his current one before it could even fully leave the area - causing it already to begin swirling out of control as the doctor was forcibly hurled away from the scene by the sheer power of the wind turbulence of his dying battleship.

“No! No no no NO!” the man screamed as he began spiraling down towards the waters of the sea below, the view of Sonic, Elise and his Egg Carrier growing more distant within seconds - let alone the view of all his other various aircrafts falling down with him towards the deep blue, “I’ll get you for this you spiky blue rat!” he called out just before letting out one last echoing, “I HATE THAT HEDGEHOOOOOOOOOOOOG!”

His voice was but a fading whisper, if even audible at all, to Sonic and Elise however - who remained on the catwalk that remained of the hangar, with the wind blaring in their faces and various flaming chunks of the Egg Carrier falling apart all around them. Yet again taking Elise into his arms, Sonic looked out ahead and could see between all of the smoke and fire that the sky was yet again clear and blue, and also that the ship was still relatively close to a cliffside. Though, he wasn’t sure if he could make the jump on his own.

That is, until Elise herself pointed to a certain large flaming chunk of ship, actually excited as she said:

“Sonic!”

Smirking and raising a brow, Sonic couldn’t help but curiously ask:

“Aren’t you worried?”

With a smirk of her own, Elise responded to him accordingly:

“If you have time to worry, then run, right?”

_ Can’t argue with that logic! _

Indeed, he really couldn’t. Especially with the ‘nose’ of the Egg Carrier having ripped itself off from the rest of the ship, exploding into a roaring inferno beneath them.

As such, with Elise in his arms, Sonic braced himself for what was quite perhaps his greatest leap yet - utilizing all the speed he could muster before dashing off and jumping clean in the air for whatever free falling debris he could land his feet on. First he could a rectangular chunk of dark metal which served as an excellent springboard for him to jump off the remnants of one of the ship’s lower wings - bouncing with Elise between some of its parts before landing on the red ‘meat’ of the wing, dashing down it’s length as it scraped just along the precipice of the cliffside. Once on the very edge Sonic made a jump right for that cliff, reaching out one hand towards it while the other firmly held onto Elise. 

Alas however, it was to no avail, for gravity began to kick in and send the two falling towards the waters and rocks below. Elise couldn’t help but hold on to an equally scared Sonic, both of them sure that their fates were indeed about to be sealed. 

Or at least until one of the Egg Carrier’s massive engines, split off from what little remained of the ship’s actual body was hurtled directly into section of the cliff beneath them - triggering an explosion with enough force to propel them, shocked as they were, well into the air right onto the expansive plain of lush green grass that painted the landscape atop the cliffs. Strange was it was to not be scorched by such a volatile inferno, Sonic didn’t question it once he felt himself roll across the ground until he finally stopped - instead the first thing he did was look to make sure Elise was alright.

Though at first the duchess seemed motionless, soon she rolled over onto her back with a smile on her face, her eyes closed as though she were sleeping - or more accurately as though she was  _ relieved _ . The sounds of the battleship’s final moments were reaching their climax in the distance, with the remnants of the main hull crashing into the ocean but a few moments later - and after that, the only sounds that surrounded the pair were that of the breezes of the wind and the occasional chirping of birds. The beautiful ambience of nature.

Walking over to Elise, Sonic reached out a hand to her just as she opened her eyes to look once again at his face. Accepting his offer and letting him pull her up into a sitting position, the two ultimately didn’t share any words just yet. Instead the two of them just started laughing.

They weren’t even sure about what, honestly. Perhaps it was just going over everything that’s gone on over these past few days, and the thrill that came along with all of it being over. Just something about all of these events sparked a fit of joy amongst the two as they stayed there laughing in the light of the sun, in the middle of a gorgeous field of luscious grass.

It wasn’t until the two had calmed down from this excited laughter that Sonic turned to the smiling duchess, and with a smile of her own gave her another thumbs up as he remarked:

“Nice smile!” he also couldn’t resist adding a wink to that, and between a brief giggle she actually returned that wink as well. The two couldn’t help but gaze their eyes across the horizon in front of them at that point, looking out on the deep blue sea ahead of them - letting out deep sighs of relief while taking all of it in. Looking out onto these glistening waters, the first words out of Elise’s mouth were the happiest Sonic’s ever heard her voice:

“I can’t believe it, finally free of that insane man and his robots” she commented, “It’s so hard to believe, after all this, it’s finally over.”

“Heh, yeah” Sonic remarked, “You’re tellin’ me!”

A moment of silence took over the two again as they again took in deep breathes as they scanned their eyes one last time across the horizon. It did dawn on Elise that this would likely be one of the last moments she would have to really spend time with Sonic, but rather than let it ruin this moment she instead decided to take a different mental approach to it while she stood herself up and looked at Sonic with that nice smile of hers still across her face:

“When we return to Soleanna, would you like to attend one last celebration before you go? No Eggman this time, hopefully.”

“Heh” Sonic excitedly nodded, “You bet!”

“Well then, I guess we should head back now?”

“Yeah, we probably should” Sonic replied, turning around to begin walking away from the view of the ocean as he said “Should probably let Tails know I made it out okay after all!”

“That’s right” Elise replied, smiling as she walked right beside Sonic, “The same goes for the people of my country, I know that they more than anyone just want all of this to be over.”

“Yup” Sonic nodded, “If I were them I know I sure would!” he then shook his head again, “And to be honest, I think the best thing about takin’ care of Eggman is that now G.U.N. can finally take their butts outta here.”

Elise chuckled a little at Sonic’s remark, answering back calmly:

“It is unfortunate that G.U.N. had to take such drastic measures, but they were why Eggman wasn’t able to just leave the island with me on his battleship. At least, until he decided to just charge ahead anyway.”

“Aaaand how’d that work out for him, eh?”

Elise and Sonic yet again exchanged a bout of laughter amongst each other, finding some final moments of amusement in what had just transpired not long ago - fittingly as they were walking away from the scene, with Sonic adding in:

“Speaking’ of G.U.N. though, can’t believe they just blasted away at that ship with you still inside of it!”

“I know….” Elise nodded her voice trailing for a bit as she bowed her head in silent questioning, before perking it up to look at Sonic with a smile again, “If it weren’t for you back there, I don’t know what would’ve happened!”

“Heh, don’t worry” Sonic replied with a smirk, “I never would’ve let that ship crash without savin’ you first!”

Elise’s smile beamed ever happily as she nodded in response to that, her and Sonic exchanging such looks before both turning to look ahead of themselves as they continued their calm stroll - the pair perhaps enjoying the ambience of nature and the feeling of their greatest foe being defeated too much to sense the veil of danger that silently creeped around them. It wasn’t until it was too late that the feeling of anything being long with this relaxing scene began to emerge for them.

It started with the ambience itself. Sonic couldn’t help but notice that the sounds of chirping birds and even squawking seagulls had completely vanished - leaving only the cooling yet also ghostly breezes of the wind as noise besides that of their feet walking across the blades of grass. Though his guts were telling him something was wrong, he still looked to Elise and gave her a warm, reassuring smile. He didn’t want to worry her.

_ It’s probably nothing. _

He thought:

_ They were probably scared off by the Egg Carrier crashing or by G.U.N. _

Little did he know that things were only going to escalate from there.

Within moments the two were distracted by something from behind them - a flashing purple light. Caught off guard, both of them turned around and saw what was the purple chaos emerald - floating and glimmering by itself in mid air before their eyes. There wasn’t enough time to do anything but look however, for the moment their eyes touched it the light emitting from it increased to a near blinding intensity and forced both of them to shield their eyes as the emerald’s illuminating shine became all they could see. 

Thus leaving them unaware of the figure emerging from a pitch black puddle of darkness behind them.

The figure, known as Mephiles.

No sooner that Mephiles appeared on the scene, did it happen.

Within a single moment, both Elise and Sonic were tackled to the ground just as from the palm of Mephiles’ hands a bright beam of light shrouded in black flames came firing out. Had it not been for Barry tackling him down to the grass, it would have struck him square in the back. Instead, both him and Elise, along with the human speedsters, hit the grass with a thud - leaving Mephiles pulling back his beam and gazing at this scene with a gasp of both surprise and rage.

“What?!” he exclaimed, the green irises of his eyes flaring while his crystalline claws clenched together tightly, his eyes fixating on Wally and Barry as they looked right at him, “You...you dare!”

It wasn’t long before Sonic and Elise also looked up to see Mephiles - Elise gasping in horror at witnessing his demonic form in its full glory. She wasn’t sure if she was more frightened by what he looked like, or by the fact that with a single look she already knew  _ exactly  _ where the demon had spawned from. Sonic himself was intimidated at first, though not as scared of him as the duchess was. In fact, he immediately remarked with a smirk:

“So let me guess, Mephiles?”

“You’d be right, Sonic.” Barry replied, not letting a single eye cease looking at the mastermind for a second.

Scanning his eyes over his adversaries, Mephiles was quick to reach out a hand and swiftly pull the purple chaos emerald back towards him. Noticing this action, there was an attempt by all three of the speedsters to jump into the emerald to grab it from his psychic grasp - but it was to no avail, it was within the palm of his hands again soon enough.

As he then levitated in the air above all of them, the three speedsters could only look up at him in cold anticipation as to what his next move would be. The fact his words were spoken in a most bitter disdain didn’t ease their tension:

“I’ll admit, Barry, you’ve truly exceeded all of my plans” the demon said, staring directly into Barry’s eyes, “Though what should I expect from the man responsible for all of this in the first place?”

For once, Barry responded to that with fury rather than vulnerability, his brows curled down in anger as he shouted:

“I won’t let you put all the blame on me any more! Not after everything I know that you did now! Not after what you just tried to do!”

Mephiles couldn’t help but coldly laugh in response. A special kind of cold laugh at that, one that actually made goosebumps spring across Wally, Sonic and Barry’s backs as their ears captured the sounds - let alone the quivering Elise who was clutching her hands together knowing there was absolutely nothing she could do against this monster. There was just something about the way he chuckled so wickedly that unsettled the lot of them in particular, and this feeling only continued when he responded to Barry’s shout:

“Oh, Barry, you have  _ no _ idea the things I’ve done to get to this point. Nor the things I’m going to do in retaliation for all you and your little friends have done to interfere with all of my plans!”

Within an instant after speaking that menacing threat, Mephiles proceeded to tilt his head up as he levitated himself into the air, raising the purple emerald to itself float above his head as he did so. With the emerald’s light flaring up again, as well as the demon’s own crystalline stripes & claws beginning to illuminate as though he were bioluminescent it was evident to the speedsters that he was trying something.

Something that they weren’t willing to see play out.

“We’ll see about that, wise guy!” Sonic remarked, looking at the villain with the utmost determination, “Now it’s my turn!”

As Sonic then charged himself towards Mephiles however, Barry and Wally both had wide eyes of shock pass over them, trying to stop Sonic as they called out to him in unison, “Sonic, no, wait!” before darting after him immediately afterwards - fully aware that this in turn meant they were rushing directly at Mephiles as well.

This charge however, was ultimately for nothing.

The only thing that the three speedsters were met with was a blinding flash of white light that engulfed Mephiles, his emerald and of course all of them within an instant; mere milliseconds before a single finger could have been laid upon the demon.

When all was said and done, nothing could have been done at that point to avoid what happened.

  
  


Concrete.

That’s what Sonic felt on his face as he woke up with what felt like the greatest headache of his life up to this point. 

Opening his eyes, and then having to readjust them due to the light of the blazing sun far above his head, the hedgehog could tell right away that he was laying on the sidewalk of some metropolitan city - though to be fair he had already suspected that due to the sounds of vehicles driving across asphalt that he could regularly echo into his eardrums. But beyond that he could see various highrises, skyscrapers and other buildings that especially from his perspective reached tall into the sky - yet none of them were at all like those of Soleanna. Though perhaps these were merely buildings he hadn’t seen yet.

Especially one such building that he noticed off the coast, connected to the mainland by a rather long suspension bridge.

With the sky being blue and the daylight being broad, he could see that tower pain as day; it was the most unique building of all, being in the shape of the letter ‘T’ and all. It’s main body was made of glass that perfectly reflected the blue of both the sky and the ocean surrounding the island of rock it stood on. He couldn’t help admire the uniqueness of this building, whistling as he looked out onto it. Though before he could comment on it, his attention was grabbed by the sound of both Barry and Wally stirring, groaning as they too woke up.

Sonic immediately went to the two of them, in a concerned voice asking to them:

“You guys okay?”

“Yeah…” Barry assured, nodding as he rubbed his sore head, “I’m fine, more importantly, is Wally alright?”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me Unc” Wally said as he gave his uncle a thumbs up, “Takes more than that to take me out!”

“Good” Barry smiled, “What I like to hear….now where did that maniac drop us off at this time?”

“I dunno,” Sonic replied with a shrug, “My first guess is somewhere in Soleanna, but I don’t recall any ‘T’ tower existing in the New City over there!”

Hearing what Sonic said made both Barry and Wally’s eyes widen. The first thing they looked to in silence was Sonic, as if to make sure that was truly what he said.Then, their eyes scanned over to the building itself as it silently rested so far from the shoreline, separated by them only by a metal fence and a few miles of glistening bay water. While both of their jaws dropped in their awestruck silence, it was Barry’s that was quivering along with the rest of his entire body.

He didn’t need any more details. He didn’t need to see anything else.

He knew exactly  _ when _ he had been transported to.

He knew what he had to do.

Without alerting either Sonic or Wally, he  _ ran _ . He jumped right over the metal fence and made a mad dash right for the tower, the two barely having the time to reach out their hands to him before he just broke for it. Their only option was to follow after him, though they took the time speed down the road rather than the bay.

They had no idea what they were heading into, but he did.

He knew all too well.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no regrets about bringing this into the world.
> 
> Also please leave kudos and comments to tell me what you think!  
> I love receiving feedback on my work and usually respond to comments I get! A little can go a long way!


End file.
